Comments | bop_radar: What I wish I had time to write

bop_radar

What I wish I had time to write

Mar 23, 2009 21:26

So it turns out I *do* still want/need to talk about Battlestar Galactica. I'm actually desperately itching to write a serious meta post on the big-picture problems with the finale. I'm reading a lot of response posts and seeing so many good points being made and I'd really like to collate them together. I've also read a few responses from people ( Read more... )

personal, fandom, bsg

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chatchien March 23 2009, 14:03:31 UTC

Dollhouse 1-6 did peak my interest and I explained it in my post on it. But then, I was a Firefly fan, not a Buffy one.

And yes, T:SCC is sooo good.

bop_radar March 24 2009, 02:01:17 UTC

Mmm, interesting post. I was not a Firefly fan. ;) I do find the idea of mind control interesting but my main issue with 1.6, which turned me off, was the way that the guy who's wife died was given a happy ending as if it was an 'acceptable' form of using the dolls. Ewwww! It was not acceptable! NONE of it is acceptable. And basically everyone on the show is unlikeable except the dolls who are persona-less (and now another of the characters is one!) and I don't really want them to get their identities back because then they'll realise they've been raped and go mad and therefore there is no real investment in the story for me. I think maybe it is playing better to FF fans than BTVS fans? That'd be an interesting study...

chatchien March 24 2009, 04:38:32 UTC

and I don't really want them to get their identities back because then they'll realise they've been raped and go mad and therefore there is no real investment in the story for me.

Back to the Firefly analogy, but the mad Reivers, who raped, pillaged, and pundered the outer reaches of space were victims of the Alliance/Blue Sun Corp experimentations in mind control. They followed your speculative path of the violated Dollies who realized what happened to them in the Dollhouse.

And I agree, there is no "acceptable" way to use any of the Dolls. This episode was essentially about a gang of rapists who policed and executed a fellow rapist and for all the wrong reasons. It's rather like that movie, M, where a child rapist and murderer is apprehended and tried and punished by the criminal gangs rather than the rightfully constituted law.

I haven't heard from any Firefly fans, so I don't know how your hypothesis is playing out. I think that it would be interesting study too.

bop_radar March 24 2009, 05:08:53 UTC

the mad Reivers, who raped, pillaged, and pundered the outer reaches of space were victims of the Alliance/Blue Sun Corp experimentations in mind control. They followed your speculative path of the violated Dollies who realized what happened to them in the Dollhouse
Yeah... I see the link... I just don't see any enjoyment for me in watching that process. If that's indeed what Joss has in mind.

I agree, there is no "acceptable" way to use any of the Dolls.
It's interesting that you agree... do you not feel that the show invites us not-so-subtly to condone some usages of them?

chatchien March 24 2009, 15:04:54 UTC

do you not feel that the show invites us not-so-subtly to condone some usages of them?

No human process or institution is perfect. There are always the Untouchables or the people who are the Runts of the society who are there to be used and abused. And who will be used and abused, because that is human nature.

The one thing that I noticed about Mr. Whedon's Firefly was that he was always perfectly willing to let his characters suffer the consequences not only of their action but the plots of other characters' actions.

It's like Macbeth which is essentially the story of some pretty conniving and unpleasant people who are going to murder and betray their way to glory and power. I'll suspend my moral judgement to see how it plays out. Birnham Woods is going to show up sooner or later and help everything go to hell for the Macbeths. But Birnham Woods has got power hungry blood on its hands (bad analogy---leaves?) too ( ... )

bop_radar March 24 2009, 16:12:26 UTC

Yes, I see what you're saying... and I do think it's a case of the premise just being too uncomfortable for me. My discomfort comes not from being asked to suspend my moral judgment while it plays out, but from being nudged into saying 'hey, but this is kind of understandable/acceptable, isn't it?' along the way. Shakespeare didn't ask me to agree that murder was good! And I do feel that way with Dollhouse. Also, it ain't Shakespeare. ;)

And while I agree that humans as a collective are horrible, I am far more interested personally in stories where at least some of the characters try to rise above that. Because personally I'm not ready to give in and accept an abuse-or-be-abused society. And apart from anything else, I get enough of that in reality--I like my stories to have an iota of inspiration or hope ( ... )

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