You can't judge who I am from my opinions of a fictional character. It's like those people who call Spike fans "rape apologists" and "serial killer lovers." Quit making real life judgements about people just because they disagree with your opinion of a fictional TV character. Debate the opinion, not the person who holds the opinion.
Exactly. And these varying opinions are based on what we saw on the TV screen. My opinion about Buffy the character was irrevocably finalized in the last image of her on the screen: smiling because through the magical intercession of her best friend, her role as Slayer had been transferred to any number of unsuspecting, untried young girls around the globe. Being the Slayer had always been a terrible burden to her, and hot-cha! Willow freed her! So she smiled, with no thought about the implications of Willow's spell (Giles would handle that), and, incidentally, no discernable sad thoughts or feelings about the vampire whose death minutes before made her liberation possible.
I think it's telling that when Whedon was asked recently who his favorite character was on the show, he answered, "Willow." I think part of the reason Buffy was written as such a cold, unfeeling, unlikeable character for the final year and a half had less to do with her increasingly ether-like "burdens" and "dogged heroism" and more to do with the fact that Whedon and his writers no longer liked the character nor the actress playing her very much. It showed, let me tell you.
But then again, that's just my opinion, and just because I hold that opinion doesn't make me unfeeling, perfectionistic, overly harsh or mean. ME wrote Buffy as emotionless, hard, uncaring and selfish, and that's what I saw on the screen. YMMV, of course, but that's the beauty of individual perceptions in a free society.
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Exactly. And these varying opinions are based on what we saw on the TV screen. My opinion about Buffy the character was irrevocably finalized in the last image of her on the screen: smiling because through the magical intercession of her best friend, her role as Slayer had been transferred to any number of unsuspecting, untried young girls around the globe. Being the Slayer had always been a terrible burden to her, and hot-cha! Willow freed her! So she smiled, with no thought about the implications of Willow's spell (Giles would handle that), and, incidentally, no discernable sad thoughts or feelings about the vampire whose death minutes before made her liberation possible.
I think it's telling that when Whedon was asked recently who his favorite character was on the show, he answered, "Willow." I think part of the reason Buffy was written as such a cold, unfeeling, unlikeable character for the final year and a half had less to do with her increasingly ether-like "burdens" and "dogged heroism" and more to do with the fact that Whedon and his writers no longer liked the character nor the actress playing her very much. It showed, let me tell you.
But then again, that's just my opinion, and just because I hold that opinion doesn't make me unfeeling, perfectionistic, overly harsh or mean. ME wrote Buffy as emotionless, hard, uncaring and selfish, and that's what I saw on the screen. YMMV, of course, but that's the beauty of individual perceptions in a free society.