Word on Aeryn/Crichton. Wanna tell a story of butt kicking heroes that work like hell to try to figure out their way through love, angst, ambiguity, and commitment... that's A/C.
I don't think Mutant Enemy can write a story like that. It's not in Joss "Love is Pain" Whedon. There are just too many neuroses (penises are evil, fathers are EEEEVIL, mothers are ineffective, heroic women take on the old fashioned male "virtues", yadda, yadda, fishcakes.)
Either that or Joss is just addicted to the old Darkfic concept of "If it's dark, disappointing, and awful it MUST be top drawer drama." Whatever. Personally, I find nothing particularly great about pain. If there is growth, development and character evolution through the pain then great. But so often I think ME goes for the hurt because Joss things causing the audience to scream means he's doing something right when in fact they may be screaming because he really is WRONG.
Anyway, Joss' "I love you" / "No you don't" was lame. Lame, lame, lame, lame.
Lame no because Spike said "No, you don't." By the time the finale rolled around I had embraced that notion because regardless of whether Buffy truly BELIEVES what she says, given her behavior, whatever it was doesn't fit my definition of love.
It was lame because there was no emotional catharsis in it. No closure. It was just a cookie crumb thrown at Angel. A cookie crumb thrown at Spike and oopsie! Over... and she's no further along on her emotional journey than "I Was Made to Love You" where she lamented that she couldn't make a relationship work because of her remarkable self absorbtion.
Yes, Buffy. You're right about that one. Wish you could have actally LEARNED something in the last few years rather than have an epiphany and then forget it, have an epiphany then forget it, rinse and repeat ad nauseum. So she's cookie dough... and how does this epiphany differ from any other epiphany that didn't stick?
In the end Buffy was in the same emotional vacuum at the end of the season as she'd been running around in since she came back from heeeaaaaven. She still didn't know SiTs names. She still couldn't manage more than an equivalent of the helicopter run she gave Riley only it was a tearful--too late to even be believable "I love you" to a man who is going to die in a few seconds. She still hadn't reconnected to her friends in any meaningful way. She's not heading to LA to actually WORK on a relationship but instead waits for that mythical someday when everything will suddenly be okay and perfect as if real relationships don't take proximity, knowlege of one another, and some effort expended in trying to make a relationship.
Buffy ends up nowhere and not very different from the girl an episode or three earlier who was an emotional wasteland... only now she has a nifty ax, reduced sense of responsibility, and a bunch of other people to do what she has hated for the last few years.
She didn't go anywhere.
Poor Anya was dead.
Xander hardly acknowledged his dead fiance before joking about the mall.
Giles is still a pod person.
Spike died without anyone giving a damn or even acknowledging that he saved their ungrateful butts.
So...tell me again, where was I supposed to see this outstandig ending?
Sorry. It's late and I'm back to being snarky again. :)
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Date: 2003-08-08 05:23 am (UTC)I don't think Mutant Enemy can write a story like that. It's not in Joss "Love is Pain" Whedon. There are just too many neuroses (penises are evil, fathers are EEEEVIL, mothers are ineffective, heroic women take on the old fashioned male "virtues", yadda, yadda, fishcakes.)
Either that or Joss is just addicted to the old Darkfic concept of "If it's dark, disappointing, and awful it MUST be top drawer drama." Whatever. Personally, I find nothing particularly great about pain. If there is growth, development and character evolution through the pain then great. But so often I think ME goes for the hurt because Joss things causing the audience to scream means he's doing something right when in fact they may be screaming because he really is WRONG.
Anyway, Joss' "I love you" / "No you don't" was lame. Lame, lame, lame, lame.
Lame no because Spike said "No, you don't." By the time the finale rolled around I had embraced that notion because regardless of whether Buffy truly BELIEVES what she says, given her behavior, whatever it was doesn't fit my definition of love.
It was lame because there was no emotional catharsis in it. No closure. It was just a cookie crumb thrown at Angel. A cookie crumb thrown at Spike and oopsie! Over... and she's no further along on her emotional journey than "I Was Made to Love You" where she lamented that she couldn't make a relationship work because of her remarkable self absorbtion.
Yes, Buffy. You're right about that one. Wish you could have actally LEARNED something in the last few years rather than have an epiphany and then forget it, have an epiphany then forget it, rinse and repeat ad nauseum. So she's cookie dough... and how does this epiphany differ from any other epiphany that didn't stick?
In the end Buffy was in the same emotional vacuum at the end of the season as she'd been running around in since she came back from heeeaaaaven. She still didn't know SiTs names. She still couldn't manage more than an equivalent of the helicopter run she gave Riley only it was a tearful--too late to even be believable "I love you" to a man who is going to die in a few seconds. She still hadn't reconnected to her friends in any meaningful way. She's not heading to LA to actually WORK on a relationship but instead waits for that mythical someday when everything will suddenly be okay and perfect as if real relationships don't take proximity, knowlege of one another, and some effort expended in trying to make a relationship.
Buffy ends up nowhere and not very different from the girl an episode or three earlier who was an emotional wasteland... only now she has a nifty ax, reduced sense of responsibility, and a bunch of other people to do what she has hated for the last few years.
She didn't go anywhere.
Poor Anya was dead.
Xander hardly acknowledged his dead fiance before joking about the mall.
Giles is still a pod person.
Spike died without anyone giving a damn or even acknowledging that he saved their ungrateful butts.
So...tell me again, where was I supposed to see this outstandig ending?
Sorry. It's late and I'm back to being snarky again. :)