Memories, light the corners of my miiiind...

[gwyn]

I've been capturing (for what feels like years, but has really only been over the past month or so, in between weeks of not being able to capture at all) clips for an all-Buffy-and-Angel cast vid. It's been a long time since I revisted these shows to such a degree -- I've done a fair amount of vidding in the Jossverse the past couple years, but I haven't had to look at so many eps, scan through so many whole chapters, in ages. Maybe even ever, because most of the vids have had a specific story and focus and I knew where to grab those clips I wanted.

I'm amazed at how much I remember of Buffy's first seasons, and how little I remember of Angel's. I don't know why this is. It's weird. But there are other things that really strike me as I go through these eps with the sound off.

- Buffy used to have a body, before SMG caved in to that emaciated look that is the only thing that counts among young actresses today. She had actual boobs (enough so that at one point I wondered if she'd gotten reduction surgery) and hips, and that soft roundness to her face in S1 and S2 made her look so lovely, made that whole deception of the little blond girl with superpowers even more amazing. I kind of stopped capturing after S5, in fact, because I just like looking at my girl when she seems less haggard and starved and scrawny. I adore Buffy, but I had a really hard time watching her get scrawnier and scrawnier toward the end; it made me sad.

- It took them three seasons to figure out that Anthony Stewart Head was sexay, and to use that. Even with his relationship with Jenny, and even after the Ripper revelations and his interactions with Ethan, he's still stuck in the tweedy English professor type at the start of S3, which he does well. But anyone who ever watched VR5 or any of his other roles knew that he was a lot cooler and sexier than they were allowing him to be. Weirdly, when he really starts to get out of that box is when Faith arrives. She's the one who comments right away about Buffy having a hot watcher, she's allowing us to see something else in him that we haven't before, looking through the eyes of the Scoobies. And then they start allowing him to do other things, wear other clothes (behold the power of a casual sweater with the sleeves pushed up), and once he's officially out as Buffy's watcher, act more powerfully independently of his role. When they bring Wes in as an even tweedier, dorkier, sillier contrast, Giles has officially broken out of that box. I love it.

- It's fun to see all these young faces again, before they were on everything else you watch on TV. Same thing with X-Files, which I have been watching on Sci-Fi regularly in an effort to remember more of the series for a vid.

- Out of all the people who changed the most physically over the years, I think David Boreanaz went through the most dramatic physical changes (not hair changes, a la Anya and Cordy). He's so unbelievably young in those early eps, and then he seems more solid and mature, and then he beefs up a little, and then he's back in fighting form... it's really interesting to chart. Still, as long he has hair that stands up, I'm okay! (I'm thoroughly convinced that this is why I think Rob Morrow's so hot now -- his standup Angel hair.)

- Before James Marsters started showing his age, my god, was he creamy-dreamy. That porcelain skin! Those insanely blue eyes! Yum.

- I never thought much about Riley -- he seemed like dead space to me and he didn't seem to have any chemistry with anyone (except James, who has chemistry with everyone). But he's really in a lot of ridiculously slashy situations throughout his run on the show. I mean, at one point he's even manhandling Giles, whose shirt is mostly off, and all I could think was, wow, this would be slasher heaven for most people on a show. I mean, most slashers would kill to get the kind of male-male interactions for vidding that Marc Blucas had.

- I liked Cordelia a lot more when she was a shallow bitch. When they made her more saintly in Angel, I was way less interested in her. I can see the need to have her grow, but I think they had her grow too far in the other direction. Late Angel season one is the last time she was really fun for me (well, with the exception of Billy and the whole shoe show-down with Lilah).

- But out of all the people who grew and changed emotionally on both series, it's Wes who is still the champeen for me. Man, what an incredible journey he went on, and how amazing Alexis Denisof was in portraying that. When you watch him in those early days on Buffy S3, and then the way he begins to transform in S2 Angel... it's really incredible to watch him. If you compare visually the Wes of S3 Buffy with just a year later, when he's been tortured horribly by Faith and then rises up and helps her because he cares about what Angel cares about is just... wow. I'm looking for all this silly stuff, but it reminds me now that I need to do the serious Wes vid I've always wanted to do (though I have to find a different song now).

- I know Spike is famous for the black leather coat, but no one -- NO ONE -- wears a coat like Angel. He is peerless at the outerwear.

- My goodness, the sexual innuendo and visual metaphors they got away with.

Comments

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

I mean, most slashers would kill to get the kind of male-male interactions for vidding that Marc Blucas had.

Too bad he has all the charisma, or chemistry, of a dead rock.

Rocks can't be dead? Oops, my bad.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I know, I know... sigh. I remember watching him in a John Sayles movie ith Edie Falco, and thinking, how is it that he still doesn't have any chemistry with anyone!? In a Sayles movie, yet!

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

I, too, am amazed by the utter lack of sexual energy that is Riley.

I went through a rather confused stage in my sexual development wherein I decided that being turned on was wrong, and therefore carefully trained a few lovers to AVOID any real sexual stimulation during sex with me. Buffy looked to be working through some similar issues there, picking DeadRock!Riley to replace Hot!Sexy!Bad!Angel.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, when he really starts to get out of that box is when Faith arrives.

*cough*taughtacourseonthis*cough*--but it's no accident at all. The Faith arc deliberately contrasts the "appropriate" Slayer-Watcher relationship that Buffy and Giles have to the "bad Father" dynamic of Faith and The Mayor, a move that seems to me precisely calculated to bury the thought that Buffy and Giles could be romantically involved (despite the relationship looking exactly like the one in, say, Austen's Emma, where Buffy is Emma and Giles is Mr. Knightley.) That was something they wanted to disown, and so as so often in the Buffyverse, it's done by way of dramatic foils. On Buffy, even the FOILS have foils-it's honestly more Shakesperean than any contemporary drama I can think of.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Did you really? How cool! I am definitely not the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to things like this, and it's been an interesting process for me in a way to go back and look at these things with different glasses on -- it took me years to come around to being able to stand Faith, and I sort of blocked most of S3 out until I worked on a vid last year that made me re-evaluate a lot of that. I think it's that act of watching things without the sound -- you focus on other key moments, the way things are set up, so you see more, rather than merely listening.

If you ever feel like telling more about your class (or have already and have a place it's posted), I would love to read it!

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

I'll buy you a drink next VVC and tell you about the course in person; I've tried not to put too much idenifiable real-life stuff online. (But it was way cool!)

[crickwooder.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, the evolution of Wesley. That may be my favorite thread throughout the entire Buffyverse. It was just amazing.

[minim_calibre]

Did you know that you could also trace it through his alcohol choices? (Which I did once, because I was either that obsessive, or had that much free time on my hands, or perhaps both.) There were so many little, fantastic details there.

[crickwooder.livejournal.com]

NO WAY! Holy shit, I am going to have to sit down and check that out. Fabulous!

[minim_calibre]

Way!

I can't remember if the early Caritas drinking had actual visuals or just drink names, because it belatedly occurs to me that such a thing might be of use to a vidder...

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I was going to say No Way! but someone beat me to it. Now I want details!

[minim_calibre]

I'm trying to remember if I ever posted it here, or if I just posted it to the workshop thread where I had the epiphany about it.

Hrrm.

I'll try tracking it down.

[minim_calibre]

I swear, I did a more thorough write up, but until about two years ago, I was random as hell with my subject lines. I did find the thread in question, where I first started yammering about it: http://buffistas.org/showthread.php?thread_id=19&post_id=7960

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

the Booze of His Father?!? You know, with Wes's issues, that actually makes some kind of horrific sense.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Sexual innuendo and visual metaphors? I'm thinking I've missed a lot. I didn't see any of the shoe showdown, too, because I couldn't/didn't watch either show for a while.

Now you're making me have a hankering, too. Grr!

[morgantree.livejournal.com]

I so much agree with you about Wesley. I first watched both BtVS and AtS on DVD, in massive doses, so Wes's transformation was somewhat compressed, and I think all the more instense for that. Half in love with him by the end -- at least a dark fascination. Thanks for reminding me. And excited to hear about this vid-in-progress!

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at how much I remember of Buffy's first seasons, and how little I remember of Angel's. It works like that for me, too. I feel, as old as I am, that I've been imprinted like a baby duck, only with Buffy.

[sherrold.livejournal.com]

> it's Wes who is still the champeen for me.

Yes, yes, yes! No one suffered more, or more beautifully, either. My fav episode of Angel ever was that one from the last season where Wes' dad comes to LA. That episode gutted me.

I'll absolutely keep my ears open for a song for him -- I've never thought I was up to doing him justice, but I'd love it if you did.

he does indeed rock the outerwear, that Angel

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

Especially in slomo.

Why isn't everything filmed in slow mo? Why??