I will say, though, that the fanon/canon divide is very sharp in my mind, and I don't mix the two. When I'm debating the character, I debate what I saw onscreen, not what I may have speculated without evidence or read in fic.
The problem is, to my mind at least, that what's on-screen is translated through our own biases. If you go by script alone, a very different interpretation of events could occur. That whole business with James Marsters being upset at himself and Spike fans because of interpretations of the way he played the role is an example. The character got away from ME and they had to try to rein it in during late Season 6
I'm hideously bad at debate, but what I'm trying to say is that i honestly don't think there IS such a thing as pure canon. Is pure canon the shooting script? What if I interpret a line's delivery different than you and it makes Buffy seem sympathetic rather than harsh?
Or is pure canon what I see on my screen? What YOU see on YOUR screen might be very different. If I had been raped (god forbid), that scene in Seeing Red would have been very different to me than it was. Yet it would still be canon.
I argue that while there are certain undeniable canon "facts" like Joyce died, Tara died, Buffy died, Xander had a car in "The Zeppo", much of what makes us fans -- the final scene between Dawn and Buffy on the Tower in 'The Gift' -- is open to interpretation. Did Buffy sacrifice herself, or kill herself? She'd died, sure that's canon. But we wouldn't be fans HAVING debate if "pure canon" was all there was.
I don't think it's possible to stick to pure canon in debate.
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Re: My take on Season 7 Buffy
Date: 2003-08-06 04:04 am (UTC)The problem is, to my mind at least, that what's on-screen is translated through our own biases. If you go by script alone, a very different interpretation of events could occur. That whole business with James Marsters being upset at himself and Spike fans because of interpretations of the way he played the role is an example. The character got away from ME and they had to try to rein it in during late Season 6
I'm hideously bad at debate, but what I'm trying to say is that i honestly don't think there IS such a thing as pure canon. Is pure canon the shooting script? What if I interpret a line's delivery different than you and it makes Buffy seem sympathetic rather than harsh?
Or is pure canon what I see on my screen? What YOU see on YOUR screen might be very different. If I had been raped (god forbid), that scene in Seeing Red would have been very different to me than it was. Yet it would still be canon.
I argue that while there are certain undeniable canon "facts" like Joyce died, Tara died, Buffy died, Xander had a car in "The Zeppo", much of what makes us fans -- the final scene between Dawn and Buffy on the Tower in 'The Gift' -- is open to interpretation. Did Buffy sacrifice herself, or kill herself? She'd died, sure that's canon. But we wouldn't be fans HAVING debate if "pure canon" was all there was.
I don't think it's possible to stick to pure canon in debate.