rusty_halo | (no subject)

I don't have a problem with complicated, flawed characters. I understand that Buffy endured a very difficult life that was bound to cause emotional problems. I liked and sympathized with Buffy quite a bit up until "Smashed."

However, when she began taking her pain out on other people, who didn't deserve it, I lost all respect for her. When she sobbed at the end of "Dead Things," not because she felt bad for hurting Spike, but because she felt bad for letting Spike taint her. When she didn't even flinch at the bruises on Spike's face in "Older and Far Away." When she never ever apologized to him for months of physical and emotional abuse, and never acknowledged to anyone (save a vampire who she proceeded to kill) that she was just as responsible for their fucked up relationship as Spike was.

Buffy could have regained my sympathy very easily if she'd shown any kind of remorse for the way she mistreated Spike. IMO - she didn't. And not only that, but the writing inplicitly excused all of her misbehavior. They harped on the AR over and over, but never once brought up the "Dead Things" beating. I'm disgusted by the double standard that the writers used in excusing all of Buffy's poor behavior. And for those reasons, I cannot stand the character.

I respect that others have the right to disagree. I have never once bashed or judged the people who like Buffy, and I would appreciate if they'd refrain from bashing and judging me. Accusing me of having "no compassion" and so on is just bullshit. 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

no discernable sad thoughts or feelings about the vampire whose death minutes before made her liberation possible.

And no thoughts for Anya, who'd just died horribly, or for Xander, who just lost his love (not that Xander seemed to care, but still), or for any of the girls who'd just been killed (not that Buffy ever bothered to learn their names anyway).

Yup, ITA with all you said.

There were a lot of incidents that sealed my poor opinion of Buffy. I have to admit to having always had an ambivalent view of the character. I liked her in Season 2 and disliked her in Season 4 post Sanctuary. I liked her again in Season 5 and early Season 6. I grew VERY impatient with her during Smashed. And, like Laura, after OAFA I really had developed great distaste for the character. Rather than being horrified by her own actions in Dead Things, her horror was reserved for having sex with Spike. Hello! She just had an incredibly abusive incident and what she was horrified about was having slept with Spike? For "allowing" him to do these things as though she hadn't been a participant? I cut slack until OAFA when she looked into Spike's bruised face and never showed one single moment of embarrassment for having done that.

Still, I tried to forgive her. However, the point where I finally knew I'd never like the character again was in "Get it Done" when after wallowing in her own pain all of Season 6 she mocked Chloe's, Willow's, and Spike's. She then required of them something she didn't require of herself. The way she buried Chloe like a dead hamster was appalling. The way she mocked Spike was apalling as well. At some point Buffy's callous behavior and ego-centrism stopped being a foible and started to become a defining characteristic. Ultimately I agree with the "Chosen" review that said that at the end of the day Buffy didn't earn her "happy ending," it was given to her by SiTs whose names she never bothered to learn and by Spike who she privately denied until her words were too late to have meaning and who she never publicly acknowledged.

So true. And I think a lot of it has to do with the writers seeing everything from her POV and automatically forgiving everything she does, never bothering to show us her real emotions or reasons for behaving horribly, and never, ever making her apologize or show remorse. Within the narrative, she gets away with such horrible acts, stuff that Spike or Anya would never be forgiven for. It's like the core scoobies are just better than everyone else, and Buffy is best of all, so they don't have to face the consequences of theirs actions like everyone else does.