Buffy 7.21, "End of Days"
Wasn't too bad.
Buffy and Faith actually talked. Buffy and Xander actually talked, and she showed some real consideration and appreciation for the boy. Angel showed up and my little 'shipper heart squeed for joy. Although yeah, she should so have whacked his head off when she got the chance. Sometimes I wonder if these people know anything about monster fighting...
[tangent] ASH was on an old HL ep last night - and he got to play w/ a makeshift flamethrower. I squeed entirely too much and disturbed the roommate. But it was Giles! Giles with a flamethrower! [/tangent]
The Buffy/Spike....I liked that they talked, she actually opened up to him some more, and there was a comfort and a closeness there. But while romantic hyperbole may be his style, it's still too entirely squishy and inaccurate to his history (Dru? I know you're around here somewhere...) for me to look fondly on, and it wrecks some of the fine acting that was going on there. ...which is why I espec. liked the B/A scene, b/c it wasn't over the top, and displayed their ongoing comfort/ease with each other, in spite of long separation. He steps in when he's needed, then steps back and lets her do her thing. And then they just kiss. A little swelling music, but nothing ridiculous. Simplicity.
The Anya-Andrew scenes were spot-on - just the right combination of sentimentality and ridiculousness and bluntness. I thought the writers were going for an A/A hookup or something hideous for a minute, but fortunately they changed directions. Anya still calls humans "they."
Critique: more Giles, damnit! He still feels vaguely menacing occasionally (something about the delivery?), but then not, and he doesn't DO anything. The little conversations w/ Willow are interesting - while she does need to be careful using magic, at the same time, she does no good to anyone and denies her identity by refusing to use it. She'll never get any better if she doesn't learn to control the dark surge - just denying it means it'll pop out bad later.
The Guardian? eh. Who the hell is she actually, and how has she been around so long? Is it just a lame rip-off of the last knight guarding the Grail? (sidebar: "it's the Holy Grail, or the Holy Hand Grenade [of antioch!] or something." I love Monty Python-watching Spike. He had another line last week too. heh.) Unless they do something with that next week, was sorta random and filler-y. And if the axe was made for the first Watcher guys, wouldn't that be thousands of years ago, not hundreds? Still lots of small script deficiencies like that. Felt like they were trying to indicate implications of its making, its role...but didn't really say anything. It is damn nifty, though. I want an axe like that, man. Although it's far, far too modern looking for something claiming to be that old. And why do they keep calling it a scythe?
Which brings me back to the conv. w/ Faith. There's all the Arthur symbolism (ouch! stupid anvils...) that would imply Buffy is the One True Slayer and Faith is just that other one....but in spite of that being the obvious interpretation, it doesn't feel like that to me. Buffy tells Faith that it was meant for "the Slayer," which Faith takes as "the one true slayer, not the johnny-come-lately fuck-up one," but something - perhaps in SMG's delivery or body language - makes me think that Buffy meant it as it was meant for the Slayer as the concept, the role - not whichever individual happened to be the Slayer at this time. That Buffy happened to be the one who found it and picked it up this time, but it could just as easily have been Faith. I don't know, that's just my reading.
There is a weird disconnect though, in that Buffy realizes Faith got caught in the trap by coincidence - that it could've been her, it was no fault of Faith's leadership - but the other characters don't. So I'm not sure which horse the writers are backing, but it sure as hell had better be the first one. Faith needs more boosting - particularly from Buffy - that she is just as much a Slayer, just as good a person/leader/embodiment of the good fight as Buffy is. 'Cuz otherwise, Faith's insecurities will cause her to make mistakes. Though "thank god we're hot chicks w/ superpowers" - bwahaha! whee! love Faith. There's still issues/distance between them, but they're understanding each other better. ::heart melts::
Caleb, like the UberVamp from earlier, is only scary when tossing Buffy around like a rag doll. 'cuz the rest of the time he's either pompous or sulking. and unless you sulk in a creepy, creepy fashion like Dru, it just isn't scary and Evil-like. And the UberVamps are free now? whatever.
An uncertainty in the last bit - I assume Spike is firmly under TFE's claw there, b/c otherwise why would he just be standing there, and not have helped Buffy before Angel jumped in? The direction of the shot made it seem like he'd been there for at least a few minutes, not that he'd just walked up, so that's what I'm going on right now. Angel was a little quippier than I would've expected - and how did he know where to find her? - but whatever. squee.
Other little issue: weird pagan tomb in the middle of the cemetary out of nowhere? guess it's like Drac's castle.
Ok, think that's everything. Cool to see Willow's hair turn white next week. Have a feeling Spike fighting for TFE/dying in battle/whatever ends up happening to him will be way overdramatic and played too heavy-handedly....but I'll wait and see.
Buffy and Faith actually talked. Buffy and Xander actually talked, and she showed some real consideration and appreciation for the boy. Angel showed up and my little 'shipper heart squeed for joy. Although yeah, she should so have whacked his head off when she got the chance. Sometimes I wonder if these people know anything about monster fighting...
[tangent] ASH was on an old HL ep last night - and he got to play w/ a makeshift flamethrower. I squeed entirely too much and disturbed the roommate. But it was Giles! Giles with a flamethrower! [/tangent]
The Buffy/Spike....I liked that they talked, she actually opened up to him some more, and there was a comfort and a closeness there. But while romantic hyperbole may be his style, it's still too entirely squishy and inaccurate to his history (Dru? I know you're around here somewhere...) for me to look fondly on, and it wrecks some of the fine acting that was going on there. ...which is why I espec. liked the B/A scene, b/c it wasn't over the top, and displayed their ongoing comfort/ease with each other, in spite of long separation. He steps in when he's needed, then steps back and lets her do her thing. And then they just kiss. A little swelling music, but nothing ridiculous. Simplicity.
The Anya-Andrew scenes were spot-on - just the right combination of sentimentality and ridiculousness and bluntness. I thought the writers were going for an A/A hookup or something hideous for a minute, but fortunately they changed directions. Anya still calls humans "they."
Critique: more Giles, damnit! He still feels vaguely menacing occasionally (something about the delivery?), but then not, and he doesn't DO anything. The little conversations w/ Willow are interesting - while she does need to be careful using magic, at the same time, she does no good to anyone and denies her identity by refusing to use it. She'll never get any better if she doesn't learn to control the dark surge - just denying it means it'll pop out bad later.
The Guardian? eh. Who the hell is she actually, and how has she been around so long? Is it just a lame rip-off of the last knight guarding the Grail? (sidebar: "it's the Holy Grail, or the Holy Hand Grenade [of antioch!] or something." I love Monty Python-watching Spike. He had another line last week too. heh.) Unless they do something with that next week, was sorta random and filler-y. And if the axe was made for the first Watcher guys, wouldn't that be thousands of years ago, not hundreds? Still lots of small script deficiencies like that. Felt like they were trying to indicate implications of its making, its role...but didn't really say anything. It is damn nifty, though. I want an axe like that, man. Although it's far, far too modern looking for something claiming to be that old. And why do they keep calling it a scythe?
Which brings me back to the conv. w/ Faith. There's all the Arthur symbolism (ouch! stupid anvils...) that would imply Buffy is the One True Slayer and Faith is just that other one....but in spite of that being the obvious interpretation, it doesn't feel like that to me. Buffy tells Faith that it was meant for "the Slayer," which Faith takes as "the one true slayer, not the johnny-come-lately fuck-up one," but something - perhaps in SMG's delivery or body language - makes me think that Buffy meant it as it was meant for the Slayer as the concept, the role - not whichever individual happened to be the Slayer at this time. That Buffy happened to be the one who found it and picked it up this time, but it could just as easily have been Faith. I don't know, that's just my reading.
There is a weird disconnect though, in that Buffy realizes Faith got caught in the trap by coincidence - that it could've been her, it was no fault of Faith's leadership - but the other characters don't. So I'm not sure which horse the writers are backing, but it sure as hell had better be the first one. Faith needs more boosting - particularly from Buffy - that she is just as much a Slayer, just as good a person/leader/embodiment of the good fight as Buffy is. 'Cuz otherwise, Faith's insecurities will cause her to make mistakes. Though "thank god we're hot chicks w/ superpowers" - bwahaha! whee! love Faith. There's still issues/distance between them, but they're understanding each other better. ::heart melts::
Caleb, like the UberVamp from earlier, is only scary when tossing Buffy around like a rag doll. 'cuz the rest of the time he's either pompous or sulking. and unless you sulk in a creepy, creepy fashion like Dru, it just isn't scary and Evil-like. And the UberVamps are free now? whatever.
An uncertainty in the last bit - I assume Spike is firmly under TFE's claw there, b/c otherwise why would he just be standing there, and not have helped Buffy before Angel jumped in? The direction of the shot made it seem like he'd been there for at least a few minutes, not that he'd just walked up, so that's what I'm going on right now. Angel was a little quippier than I would've expected - and how did he know where to find her? - but whatever. squee.
Other little issue: weird pagan tomb in the middle of the cemetary out of nowhere? guess it's like Drac's castle.
Ok, think that's everything. Cool to see Willow's hair turn white next week. Have a feeling Spike fighting for TFE/dying in battle/whatever ends up happening to him will be way overdramatic and played too heavy-handedly....but I'll wait and see.