30 Days of Buffy. (Days 1-15)
11 Jul 2011 03:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkSo, to anyone worried that I might have died of late: fear not! I have not been dead but instead have been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All seven seasons in a few weeks. Ok, so it was a bit like being dead. I know I owe massive amounts of fic reading, responding to comments, and corresponding, so hopefully I shall be getting back to that soon--thank you all for your patience.
I've never watched Buffy before this. And, truthfully, never had much desire to outside of wanting to know what everybody keeps going on about. What else I've seen of Joss Whedon (Firefly, Dr. Horrible, a bit of Dollhouse) I've enjoyed but not felt rapturous about, besides which it all gives me slightly weird vibes--not enough to be seriously off-putting, but enough to say "this isn't really your show." Still . . . it's Buffy. A major point of cultural and fandom literacy. One of those things you've just got to watch. And Elisi was around to hold my hand and listen to my inevitable rantings. And I'm ignoring Doctor Who right now because I don't know what to do with it. So why not?
Long story short: I'm glad I've seen it now. It was a satisfying journey to take. But those slightly weird vibes were right--this is not my show and never will be. I like using these 30 day memes for condensing my thoughts, though, so have some thoughts under the cut. Errrr--probably if you love this show to pieces and can't hear a word against it, you should not read more.
This is a bit tricky to answer. Joss characters really don't tend to make me squeeful. There are ones I like more and ones I like less, but I can't think of a single Joss-created character who gives me that special tingly feeling that would naturally land them on a favorites list. But I do know that there was one "character" I found myself consistently rooting for every single season: the anti-Buffy. Whichever female character was currently making the most credible go at facing down Buffy/being a mirror/being the outside voice of reason/knocking Buffy down a peg/making a power grab/having hair that wasn't blond . . . whoever that was she instantly and predictably became my character of choice. Broke my heart every time. I regret nothing. Here's to you Cordelia Chase . . . Dawn Summers . . . Faith the Vampire Slayer . . . dark!Willow . . . Anya the Vengeance Demon . . . psych professor/Initiative director/evil scientist lady whose name I forget . . . Riley's kickass wife whose name I also forget . . . Drusilla the Awesomely Demented . . . . You get the idea. *raises glass*
Day 2 - favourite male character.
Giles is my homeboy.
Giles is my homeboy.
Day 3 - least favourite character.
Xander Harris. Christ, he's annoying. I am given to understand that there are complex, substantial, feminist reasons for me to hate him, but I've got better things to do with my time than spend more time thinking about him. Remember that time when Willow was being awesome and then Xander thwarted her and saved the world through the power of
Day 4 - favourite episode.
I don't know the title, but the one where we're left with the possibility that Buffy is actually a patient in a mental hospital, hallucinating her life as the chosen one. In case you didn't catch on with my answer about female characters, I'm a bit . . . antagonistic to the basic premise of this show, and Buffy's character doesn't do much for me, and this episode came along right at a point when I was feeling particularly fed up with the whole deal. And it was like it managed to voice every major gripe I had going through my head. Plus I'm just a total sucker for any story that involves not being able to tell what is reality and what's not--it's a trope I love always, and I actually think this was one of the more interesting ways I've ever seen it used. The ending of that episode gave me a lot of momentum going forward.
Day 5 - favourite season.
Season five. I thought Dawn was a brilliant addition and I like how meta her retconning felt. I liked how Buffy had to start growing up. I never cared much one way or the other for Buffy's mom, but I thought her death was well-handled and did good things for the story. I liked how the emotional center of the story drifted away from Buffy's relationship with her friends and towards the more family type relationships with Dawn and her mom, with Giles, and with Spike. I loooooved Dawn and Spike together. I liked that Spike was a consistent presence but could still serve as comic relief. I liked the resolution to Riley's storyline (I'd been urging him to get out for his own good almost from day one). Anya made Xander more tolerable. And I think the narrative arc/season finale were the strongest of any season. Only major downside was that Glory was seriously annoying.
Day 6 - favourite couple.
I feel rather un-shippy about this show. I spent most of my time wishing people out of relationships. If I had to choose a romantic coupling, I guess I'd go with Buffy/Spike (if "romantic" is the right word there), but I'd say I found them interesting more than that I shipped them particularly. The one relationship I consistently cared about and wanted more from, though, was Buffy and Giles--they were my platonic OTP. I would have been a lot more interested in a show that was primarily about the Slayer/Watcher relationship rather than the relationships between Buffy and her peers. I loved pretty much every single moment of substantial character interaction between them.
Day 7 - least favourite episode.
That one where Willow became awesome and sucked power out of books and stopped busses through the power of her awesome and was full of rage and grief and awesomeness and told Buffy she needed her butt kicked and then might have made a very satisfying end to the whole show by destroying the world but then she was THWARTED by Xander freaking Harris and the force of
Oh, wait . . . that never happened. Yup.
Day 8 - least favourite couple.
Xander and Willow. I would have fallen asleep from boredom except that I was too busy being angry at how much screen time their snooze-fest was taking up and yelling at Willow to get over it and move on already.
Day 9 - favourite villain.
Xander Harris.
Runner up: Angelus. I thought the parallels to his behavior as Angel were one of the most interesting things about season two--that perhaps the two of them were not so far separated as the people involved would like to believe.
Day 10 - something you liked that most people didn’t.
Bit hard to say since I'm not really in touch with the Buffy fandom. I thought Dawn was one of the best things to happen to the show, and I gather she's not all that popular. Also I like Riley. Ok, he's a bit dull to watch and he and Buffy were clearly doomed from the off, but I like him. I was so thrilled when he came back married and his wife seemed like someone who would actually communicate with him and would smack him upside the head and/or poke fun at him when he needed it. In my head cannon they are very happy.
Day 11 - something you hated that most people liked.
Same caveat as above. Plus I have to ask if there's anything in the whole Buffy-vese that "most people" agree on? I guess I'll say here that I've got no particular attachment to the core Scooby gang--neither Buffy nor Willow nor Xander do much for me--which does make caring about the show difficult, particularly when too much of the emotional weight of the show is hinging on the relationships between them. I did pick up some investment in Willow towards the end, once she started power-tripping, so I'm not sure if that might carry back if I ever decided to watch earlier seasons again.
Day 12 - least favourite season.
I thought season three was a drag. The storylines might have been better done than season four, but the mix of characters was somehow endlessly dull. Also, Faith the Vampire Slayer seemed like a potential high point, but after awhile I was feeling more and more like I was watching Kara Thrace . . . if someone stripped Kara Thrace of a whole lot of her complexity, nuance, and ambiguity; dyed her hair; and chained her to someone else's narrative for the sake of giving the hero a dark mirror character. Why should I want to watch that when I could be watching KARA FRAKING THRACE instead? Not impressed. Here, have some Kara Thrace:
Ahhh--that's better.
Day 13 - favourite character arc.
I'm gonna have to go with Buffy here. I don't actually like her all that much, and I'm tired of the freaking superhero crusader savior of the world story, but her development over the course of the whole show is seriously impressive. Credit where credit is due: she's a fantastically developed character, particularly in the later, darker seasons.
I'm gonna have to go with Buffy here. I don't actually like her all that much, and I'm tired of the freaking superhero crusader savior of the world story, but her development over the course of the whole show is seriously impressive. Credit where credit is due: she's a fantastically developed character, particularly in the later, darker seasons.
Day 14 - a scene that made you laugh.
The scene in the fourth season when Spike tried to bite Willow and found out he had a chip in his head and then they have a whole hysterical conversation as if he were suffering a bout of impotence and they were both insecure about it and trying to reassure each other. I was in stitches and wanting them to be bffs and paint each others' finger nails. Apparently this was wrong of me because that scene was a Rape Metaphor and the show was making light of it and therefore I ought to be cross. To which I say that VAMPIRES are rape metaphors (with a built-in 'blame the victim' mechanism, none the less--you have to invite them in!), which the show makes light of every damn episode, and I'm cross every time I come across yet another show/movie/book that glorifies vampires as objects of lust and teenage romantic ambition.
Day 15 - a scene that made you cry.
The scene at the prom when the school thanked Buffy and gave her that silly umbrella thing and Giles was proud of her. I'm such a creampuff.
The rest tomorrow, probably:
Day 16 - something that made you think “WTF?!”.
Day 17 - saddest character death.
Day 18 - best “Scooby Gang” line-up.
Day 19 - favourite Buffy moment.
Day 20 - favourite Willow moment.
Day 21 - favourite Xander moment.
Day 22 - favourite Giles moment.
Day 23 - wackiest-looking demon.
Day 24 - a character who didn’t get enough screentime.
Day 25 - rec a fanfic or fanvid (or both).
Day 26 - something that you wish had never happened.
Day 27 - something that you wish had happened.
Day 28 - sexiest scene.
Day 29 - ickiest scene.
Day 30 - whatever tickles your fancy.
(no subject)
Date: 12 Jul 2011 04:20 pm (UTC): P