Of course you're allowed to see the character however you want. But I'm explaining why I disagree.
See, it's one thing to have your own view of something that happened onscreen. We all do. It's another to pick something and say "well, this must've influenced the character" without any canonical evidence to back it up. When Joyce died, we saw Buffy struggling with it. We can interpret her struggle in different ways, but we know she struggled. When Tara died, we didn't get any reaction from Buffy whatsoever, so I don't think it's a viable argument to say "well, Buffy was upset by Tara's death." There's no canonical evidence for it.
It's like when people say "Giles was different in S7 because he was upset by the destruction of the Watcher's council." Well, you would think so, right? But there's no evidence. There was no line where we saw Giles shake his head sadly and say that everyone he knew was dead, or his whole life had been shaken, or whatever. You could just as easily say Giles was upset because his mother died. We have the same amount of evidence for both.
I also say this because I made assumptions about Buffy too. Back when "Dead Things" aired, I knew that Buffy said "Why do I let Spike do those things to me?", but I thought she also must have been feeling guilty about how she beat him to a pulp and left him in that alley. I mean, how could she not? It was horrible! Any compassionate person would feel guilty about treating her lover that way. She must've just been too guilty to tell Tara.... But of course, I was wrong. From what I've seen onscreen: she really didn't care. He was just a thing, and she was relieved when she finally got away from him. She never once tried to deal with, or even admit to anyone who mattered, the way she abused Spike.
So yeah, everyone's allowed their opinion on the characters, and there's nothing wrong with disagreement. But when you're debating someone about the canonical events of the show, I think you need to stick with what we actually have evidence for.
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Re: My take on Season 7 Buffy
Date: 2003-08-05 03:33 am (UTC)See, it's one thing to have your own view of something that happened onscreen. We all do. It's another to pick something and say "well, this must've influenced the character" without any canonical evidence to back it up. When Joyce died, we saw Buffy struggling with it. We can interpret her struggle in different ways, but we know she struggled. When Tara died, we didn't get any reaction from Buffy whatsoever, so I don't think it's a viable argument to say "well, Buffy was upset by Tara's death." There's no canonical evidence for it.
It's like when people say "Giles was different in S7 because he was upset by the destruction of the Watcher's council." Well, you would think so, right? But there's no evidence. There was no line where we saw Giles shake his head sadly and say that everyone he knew was dead, or his whole life had been shaken, or whatever. You could just as easily say Giles was upset because his mother died. We have the same amount of evidence for both.
I also say this because I made assumptions about Buffy too. Back when "Dead Things" aired, I knew that Buffy said "Why do I let Spike do those things to me?", but I thought she also must have been feeling guilty about how she beat him to a pulp and left him in that alley. I mean, how could she not? It was horrible! Any compassionate person would feel guilty about treating her lover that way. She must've just been too guilty to tell Tara.... But of course, I was wrong. From what I've seen onscreen: she really didn't care. He was just a thing, and she was relieved when she finally got away from him. She never once tried to deal with, or even admit to anyone who mattered, the way she abused Spike.
So yeah, everyone's allowed their opinion on the characters, and there's nothing wrong with disagreement. But when you're debating someone about the canonical events of the show, I think you need to stick with what we actually have evidence for.