You are my density
Nov. 20th, 2003 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynMy friends list is all a-squee. I'm glad that finally others are feeling as happy as I've been with the whole season so far; now I won't be afraid to read my friends list. ;-)
I just have to get this out of the way first, because I can’t concentrate on anything sensible until I do — LINDSEY!!! SHIRTless Lindsey! My baby boy is back, and he’s bad, bad, bad! I know everyone’s all excited about the Spangel, but meh — I’m mostly all hot and bothered by more fighting as sublimation for sex with Lindsey and Angel, or the possibilities of Lindsey and Spike (and suddenly thinking I really need to go back and read that hot little S/L PWP by FayJay again). I guess we’re supposed to know now that you can take the boy out of Wolfram & Hart, but you can’t take the W&H out of the boy. Or he becomes some sort of wizardy guy because he can’t let go of his fatal attraction to Angel (and is that slashy or what?). Or whatever. I don’t care! It makes no sense, but I don’t care! It’s LINDSEY!!!!!!
Okay. Sorry. Anyway. I’m not much for the flashbacking to the fanged four. To be honest, I’ve just never found the stories all that compelling, though I appreciate the background into the characters — but I think, at this point, I’m kind of done with it, and the retconning drives me nuts. Plus, the added issue of the dreaded wigs of doom and the bad, shifting accents makes me mildly crazy. Dru’s accent especially annoys me, the way it constantly shifts around and the way her character shifts around, as well. I found most of those scenes in Destiny somewhat frustrating, but I did like the setup with Angel telling Spike that what he wanted was for taking, and to fight for things — but that he didn’t own anything. Not only was it a nice setup for the end of the ep, but it also seems like a pretty good direction for the rest of the corporeal Spike reason for being in Angel’s new life. The other scene I liked was in the carriage, despite the expositional hairballs being hacked up by William as he just recounted to Angel everything Angel already did (I have issues! I own my issues, but... exposition as dialog just freaking annoys me. I can’t help it!). It was interesting to see the undercurrent of jealousy and concern beneath Angel’s plotting, cunning face — he clearly was realizing at that point just how much William was drawn to Dru, and while he wanted to taunt him over it, you could see that he also realized he would be having a little competition for his big daddy lord over all spot.
One of the few things I’ve never liked much about Mutant Enemy was the way they seemed to go to a lot of effort to understand what direction the fannish zeitgeist was taking about their shows, and then fuck them up. When a lot of fans started wanting the Spuffy, they gave us the craptastic season 6 second half; when Tara and Willow became a guiding light for a lot of people, they destroyed those characters; etc. etc. There’s nothing wrong, per se, in their “we’ll give you what we think you need instead of what you want” philosophy, but far too often they miscalculate and end up doing a really bad job of trying to fuck with fans’ interests in the characters. The fact of them making the Angel and Spike being sexually involved subtext into actual text was sort of interesting in this light; it’s the first time I can really remember ME positively rewarding a large fan interest or fanon creation with something canonical and ... well, not positive, but not destructive, either.
Most of this episode was about fighting, and the fights were excellently staged. Though when did vampires suddenly start flying in this universe? No matter, it’s too much fun to quibble with. I’ve missed Spike fights, that’s always been one of my favorite things to watch, possibly one of the things that made me fall so hard for him, and it was truly wonderful to see him fighting so hard with Angel. I love it when they go after each other, the centuries of hostility between them. Though I think it’s interesting that it’s always Spike who bleeds while Angel doesn’t, or that it takes Angel far longer to start getting bloodied. I’m not sure what the significance of it is — I don’t think it’s that Spike’s the weaker fighter, but maybe a metaphor for the fact that he is so much more emotional, more likely to show the bruises and the blood, than Angel, who’s so silent and shut down. It’s hard to watch fight-centric flashback-riddled eps without comparing them to the intricately beautiful Fool For Love, which is still one of the most stunning eps I think the Buffyverse has ever done. As cool as this fight was, it still can’t compare with the breathtaking cross-cutting of Subway Spike and Buffy/Spike in the alley, though Destiny came closer than I think any other eps have. It was also interesting that Spike was immediately ready to cut loose and go chase off after Buffy in Europe, but Angel who asked him to stay. Not only was Angel asking, he wasn’t trying to force Spike into an obligation — he was solicitous. It was good to see that both of them can at least let go of the animosity long enough to figure things out.
And once again we get to see perspicacious Spike, the one who has the ability to nail what’s wrong with everyone else except himself. Angel knows what he was saying was the truth, and so all he can do is counter by throwing Spike’s two greatest weaknesses at him, hoping it’ll give him the upper hand, which it doesn’t. It’s an easy cheap shot to hurl Spike’s lack of self-esteem and his feelings for Buffy at him (as well as her feelings for Angel), but what I liked was that Spike, here, hurled them right back at Angel, rather than letting it drive him to make foolish mistakes. He’s learning — he’s slow, but he’s learning. It was kind of fun to see saucy Spike again too — I didn’t take the stuff with Harmony even remotely seriously, and I think most people who know me at all know what a Spuffista I am at heart. He’s solid again, he hasn’t had sex in an age, something that was very important to him, he knows Buffy’s not a part of his world and that Harm is his best chance at getting some right then, right there, so of course he’ll take it. And they have the history, they’ve become familiar with each other again, and so, why not? I actually was more put off by the humping her like a dog aspect, so I was glad that she started eye-bleeding and tried to kill him, because I found that so distasteful. I didn’t see him as quite that desperate and... guy-like, I guess. Plus, I’d like to know how he was doing it with his pants zipped up. I did love how quick he was to appease her by agreeing with her violent rages — so very Spike. He is so adorkable, I cannot resist him.
I was thinking of that whole madonna/whore complex thing during the flashback scenes with Dru, and I realized that Spike has always been one to envision his love objects as madonnas, even if they were more whore-like than he wanted to admit. There’s not a lot of dichotomy to his view on love — if he has feelings for a woman, he puts her on that pedestal, regardless. As open-eyed as he was about Buffy’s horrible behavior in season 6, he still saw her more on the madonna end of the scale; he sees Dru, despite her less than pure behavior, in an objectified light. I find this a really interesting aspect to his character, particularly given Angel’s tendency to try to redeem those around him no matter what the cost, especially Darla in S2. I’m not smart enough to figure out what all that means, but it interests me, and I hope it can become a part of the story running through Angel this year.
There were a lot of lovely touches in this ep: Angel squeezing and patting Spike’s knee; the car-stealing and cell-phone taunting; the pantomime of the guy creeping up on Eve and Gunn with an axe (which reminded me of Him from last year’s Buffy); the toner guy (oh, how I identify! I’m the one who always has to scream about paper and toner and whatever in my office, even replacing the pop in the cooler); the cup tasting like Mountain Dew. But seriously — can I kill David Fury? Can I? Because for fuck’s sake, there are more English words than bloody to use as interjections or intensifiers. I would beat that man to death with a fire extinguisher if I could, just for the over-reliance on bloody and his inability to get phrases right (ta means thanks, you fricking moron). I feel like every time I see his name now, I’m know I’ll be in for an evening where every fifth word is bloody.
And I guess last but not least: is it shallow to get all squee-y over the fact that characters are saying words and discussing concepts you’ve been writing about recently? I know I shouldn’t get so goofy about it, it’s not like I’m any great shakes, but when Angel told Gunn that stuff about Spike being stronger this time, about wanting to beat him, etc., I got a little giddy since that’s something I’ve been exploring in my WIP. It sounded wonderfully familiar. It was nice just to hear in general, though, even not about me me me — I’ve always thought that would be something that Angel would recognize and fear a little about Spike. Without something to strive for in that champion way, Angel becomes so dispirited that it’s too easy for him to give up. He’s been reminded a lot recently about why he should want to continue his fight (Numero Cinco, Hellbound, etc.), but because his fight isn’t about wanting something badly, it’s easy for him to let go (something we saw the beginnings of in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?). Spike’s lack of self-esteem drives him in a way that Angel, as top dog, has never had to worry about since becoming a vampire. We’ve seen that historically he can let that depression get to him badly (especially in alley-dwelling, rat-eating Angel), and without something to hope and strive for, he becomes unfocused and self-loathing. Spike has something that he’s never had, so it’s got to be scary for him; the fact that he didn’t want to get the soul makes it harder for him to know what he’s really destined for now. Spike’s a survivor, but Angel merely survives when left without some kind of clear goal. So we're back once again to the search for identity theme. I can’t wait to see what they do with this tension and struggle for self-definition in all of them (Angel, Spike, Wes, Fred, Gunn, Lorne) — Lindsey may be engineering a competition with all this destiny stuff, but I bet that these two very clever vampires and their friends will turn it around into something else entirely.
I just have to get this out of the way first, because I can’t concentrate on anything sensible until I do — LINDSEY!!! SHIRTless Lindsey! My baby boy is back, and he’s bad, bad, bad! I know everyone’s all excited about the Spangel, but meh — I’m mostly all hot and bothered by more fighting as sublimation for sex with Lindsey and Angel, or the possibilities of Lindsey and Spike (and suddenly thinking I really need to go back and read that hot little S/L PWP by FayJay again). I guess we’re supposed to know now that you can take the boy out of Wolfram & Hart, but you can’t take the W&H out of the boy. Or he becomes some sort of wizardy guy because he can’t let go of his fatal attraction to Angel (and is that slashy or what?). Or whatever. I don’t care! It makes no sense, but I don’t care! It’s LINDSEY!!!!!!
Okay. Sorry. Anyway. I’m not much for the flashbacking to the fanged four. To be honest, I’ve just never found the stories all that compelling, though I appreciate the background into the characters — but I think, at this point, I’m kind of done with it, and the retconning drives me nuts. Plus, the added issue of the dreaded wigs of doom and the bad, shifting accents makes me mildly crazy. Dru’s accent especially annoys me, the way it constantly shifts around and the way her character shifts around, as well. I found most of those scenes in Destiny somewhat frustrating, but I did like the setup with Angel telling Spike that what he wanted was for taking, and to fight for things — but that he didn’t own anything. Not only was it a nice setup for the end of the ep, but it also seems like a pretty good direction for the rest of the corporeal Spike reason for being in Angel’s new life. The other scene I liked was in the carriage, despite the expositional hairballs being hacked up by William as he just recounted to Angel everything Angel already did (I have issues! I own my issues, but... exposition as dialog just freaking annoys me. I can’t help it!). It was interesting to see the undercurrent of jealousy and concern beneath Angel’s plotting, cunning face — he clearly was realizing at that point just how much William was drawn to Dru, and while he wanted to taunt him over it, you could see that he also realized he would be having a little competition for his big daddy lord over all spot.
One of the few things I’ve never liked much about Mutant Enemy was the way they seemed to go to a lot of effort to understand what direction the fannish zeitgeist was taking about their shows, and then fuck them up. When a lot of fans started wanting the Spuffy, they gave us the craptastic season 6 second half; when Tara and Willow became a guiding light for a lot of people, they destroyed those characters; etc. etc. There’s nothing wrong, per se, in their “we’ll give you what we think you need instead of what you want” philosophy, but far too often they miscalculate and end up doing a really bad job of trying to fuck with fans’ interests in the characters. The fact of them making the Angel and Spike being sexually involved subtext into actual text was sort of interesting in this light; it’s the first time I can really remember ME positively rewarding a large fan interest or fanon creation with something canonical and ... well, not positive, but not destructive, either.
Most of this episode was about fighting, and the fights were excellently staged. Though when did vampires suddenly start flying in this universe? No matter, it’s too much fun to quibble with. I’ve missed Spike fights, that’s always been one of my favorite things to watch, possibly one of the things that made me fall so hard for him, and it was truly wonderful to see him fighting so hard with Angel. I love it when they go after each other, the centuries of hostility between them. Though I think it’s interesting that it’s always Spike who bleeds while Angel doesn’t, or that it takes Angel far longer to start getting bloodied. I’m not sure what the significance of it is — I don’t think it’s that Spike’s the weaker fighter, but maybe a metaphor for the fact that he is so much more emotional, more likely to show the bruises and the blood, than Angel, who’s so silent and shut down. It’s hard to watch fight-centric flashback-riddled eps without comparing them to the intricately beautiful Fool For Love, which is still one of the most stunning eps I think the Buffyverse has ever done. As cool as this fight was, it still can’t compare with the breathtaking cross-cutting of Subway Spike and Buffy/Spike in the alley, though Destiny came closer than I think any other eps have. It was also interesting that Spike was immediately ready to cut loose and go chase off after Buffy in Europe, but Angel who asked him to stay. Not only was Angel asking, he wasn’t trying to force Spike into an obligation — he was solicitous. It was good to see that both of them can at least let go of the animosity long enough to figure things out.
And once again we get to see perspicacious Spike, the one who has the ability to nail what’s wrong with everyone else except himself. Angel knows what he was saying was the truth, and so all he can do is counter by throwing Spike’s two greatest weaknesses at him, hoping it’ll give him the upper hand, which it doesn’t. It’s an easy cheap shot to hurl Spike’s lack of self-esteem and his feelings for Buffy at him (as well as her feelings for Angel), but what I liked was that Spike, here, hurled them right back at Angel, rather than letting it drive him to make foolish mistakes. He’s learning — he’s slow, but he’s learning. It was kind of fun to see saucy Spike again too — I didn’t take the stuff with Harmony even remotely seriously, and I think most people who know me at all know what a Spuffista I am at heart. He’s solid again, he hasn’t had sex in an age, something that was very important to him, he knows Buffy’s not a part of his world and that Harm is his best chance at getting some right then, right there, so of course he’ll take it. And they have the history, they’ve become familiar with each other again, and so, why not? I actually was more put off by the humping her like a dog aspect, so I was glad that she started eye-bleeding and tried to kill him, because I found that so distasteful. I didn’t see him as quite that desperate and... guy-like, I guess. Plus, I’d like to know how he was doing it with his pants zipped up. I did love how quick he was to appease her by agreeing with her violent rages — so very Spike. He is so adorkable, I cannot resist him.
I was thinking of that whole madonna/whore complex thing during the flashback scenes with Dru, and I realized that Spike has always been one to envision his love objects as madonnas, even if they were more whore-like than he wanted to admit. There’s not a lot of dichotomy to his view on love — if he has feelings for a woman, he puts her on that pedestal, regardless. As open-eyed as he was about Buffy’s horrible behavior in season 6, he still saw her more on the madonna end of the scale; he sees Dru, despite her less than pure behavior, in an objectified light. I find this a really interesting aspect to his character, particularly given Angel’s tendency to try to redeem those around him no matter what the cost, especially Darla in S2. I’m not smart enough to figure out what all that means, but it interests me, and I hope it can become a part of the story running through Angel this year.
There were a lot of lovely touches in this ep: Angel squeezing and patting Spike’s knee; the car-stealing and cell-phone taunting; the pantomime of the guy creeping up on Eve and Gunn with an axe (which reminded me of Him from last year’s Buffy); the toner guy (oh, how I identify! I’m the one who always has to scream about paper and toner and whatever in my office, even replacing the pop in the cooler); the cup tasting like Mountain Dew. But seriously — can I kill David Fury? Can I? Because for fuck’s sake, there are more English words than bloody to use as interjections or intensifiers. I would beat that man to death with a fire extinguisher if I could, just for the over-reliance on bloody and his inability to get phrases right (ta means thanks, you fricking moron). I feel like every time I see his name now, I’m know I’ll be in for an evening where every fifth word is bloody.
And I guess last but not least: is it shallow to get all squee-y over the fact that characters are saying words and discussing concepts you’ve been writing about recently? I know I shouldn’t get so goofy about it, it’s not like I’m any great shakes, but when Angel told Gunn that stuff about Spike being stronger this time, about wanting to beat him, etc., I got a little giddy since that’s something I’ve been exploring in my WIP. It sounded wonderfully familiar. It was nice just to hear in general, though, even not about me me me — I’ve always thought that would be something that Angel would recognize and fear a little about Spike. Without something to strive for in that champion way, Angel becomes so dispirited that it’s too easy for him to give up. He’s been reminded a lot recently about why he should want to continue his fight (Numero Cinco, Hellbound, etc.), but because his fight isn’t about wanting something badly, it’s easy for him to let go (something we saw the beginnings of in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?). Spike’s lack of self-esteem drives him in a way that Angel, as top dog, has never had to worry about since becoming a vampire. We’ve seen that historically he can let that depression get to him badly (especially in alley-dwelling, rat-eating Angel), and without something to hope and strive for, he becomes unfocused and self-loathing. Spike has something that he’s never had, so it’s got to be scary for him; the fact that he didn’t want to get the soul makes it harder for him to know what he’s really destined for now. Spike’s a survivor, but Angel merely survives when left without some kind of clear goal. So we're back once again to the search for identity theme. I can’t wait to see what they do with this tension and struggle for self-definition in all of them (Angel, Spike, Wes, Fred, Gunn, Lorne) — Lindsey may be engineering a competition with all this destiny stuff, but I bet that these two very clever vampires and their friends will turn it around into something else entirely.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 01:44 pm (UTC)I literally howled at the toner guy scene. "Common office issue?" C said. I told him that he had no idea.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 05:07 pm (UTC)Gah, be goofy, i was! I even put it in my first thoughts about the episode, made me do a little dance! I swear this was so fucking satisfying, it was just really good fanfic:P
no subject
Date: 2003-11-20 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 03:03 am (UTC)Lindsey!!!! Squeee :)
sorry
I can't wait for the new season to start here. Last season I was bored out of my skull, but now it seems this one is great (I mean, Spike :) and Lindsey - and no annoying superevilJasmine arches).
Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-21 06:41 pm (UTC)Or he becomes some sort of wizardy guy because he can’t let go of his fatal attraction to Angel (and is that slashy or what?).
Oh, I’m absolutely certain that, no matter what happens, Lindsey is gonna be all. about. angel. Lindsey’s nothing if not obsessive-compulsive, and Angel seems to have tripped all the right triggers in that regard!
Not only was Angel asking, he wasn’t trying to force Spike into an obligation — he was solicitous.
Yes, that was one of my favourite parts of the episode. And Angel’s reluctant “Europe will still be there…” almost came across as a concession – that he has a right to go to Europe, that Buffy may accept him, that he is worthy of love.
Anyway, great review, as per usual!