Buffy bits 'n pieces from magazines

[elisi]

I'm tired of tidying up the same things for the 100th time, so I thought I'd post these tidbits from a couple of magazines that I've meant to share for ages, but I was concentrating on finishing 'The Summer After' (It's all done! Go read and give me feedback, because otherwise I'll wilt away... please?), so this was more or less forgotten

Comments

[danceswithwords]

Ah, I remember when the Tara thing hit. And yea, there was much gnashing of teeth across livejournal.

I think Whedon was talking out his ass, frankly. The man likes to tell stories. He's not a terribly reliable source about what went on behind the scenes on his own shows because he prefers the interesting story to the mundane truth. I'm sure it was an idea he had, but I can't imagine it even got to the stage where the writing team was talking about it. Because for one thing, the idea that Buffy would yank someone else out of heaven after what she went through is ludicrous, and for another, it wouldn't have meshed at all well with any of the rest of the plot and themes they'd been developing all season and that were all coming to a head at the point where Tara would have reappeared. In other words, what swsa said.

I'm sort of bummed I went to college before Buffy came out, because one of my degrees is mass communications and I did a lot of media study and analysis. At the time, the big thing was Madonna, but now it's Buffy, which

[elisi]

the idea that Buffy would yank someone else out of heaven after what she went through is ludicrous

I so very nearly wrote that in my reply to swsa!

there was much gnashing of teeth across livejournal

What a wonderful image! And yes Buffy would make a fascinating study, although I probably like it too much to be able to do too much analysis.

[skylee]

If it was just altering reality, then Tara wouldn't be yanked out of heaven, she simply wouldn't have died in the first place. I think what Joss meant was probably an AU rather than a resurrection. So that's a bit different than what Willow & the scoobies did to Buffy.

But I don't see how that could have fit in S7 either. It could work, but personally I prefer Spuffy too. ;-)

[danceswithwords]

Hmm. An AU would make more sense, but if Buffy had the opportunity to alter reality, they'd have had to do some severe wriggling to structure it in such a way that the natural choice was bringing Tara back/preventing her death rather than oh, say, using the chance to deal with the impending apocalypse.

It seems like Joss thought it was a cool idea, but it obviously never actually got hashed out at all. I've got nothing against Tara, but I'm glad--I actually don't think it would have worked, and the absolute last thing S7 needed was more incoherence and dangling plot threads. :)

[skylee]

they'd have had to do some severe wriggling to structure it in such a way that the natural choice was bringing Tara back/preventing her death rather than oh, say, using the chance to deal with the impending apocalypse.

That's a really good point. It probably wouldn't have worked if that wasn't sorted out. And I agree with what you said about it not being hashed out, as it is, it just doesn't fit into what happened and the big fight that the season was building up towards.

[swsa]

But even if it was an AU, I think Buffy had definitely learned by this point that it's best not to fuck around with that crap. I just can't under any circumstances see Buffy wanting to mess around with life and death. Not after what she went through.

[skylee]

That's true. It would be against the general rule in the Jossverse if Buffy was to alter life and death like that, without some serious consequences. And she of all people wouldn't do that.

[elisi]

What a lovely discussion to wake up to! And I did think that if Buffy had been able to alter reality she'd have stopped the apocalypse in a second!

Having given the whole thing some thought, I think it's Joss' thing for 'good scenes' that came out. He often does things (such as killing Wesley) because of the powerful scenes he can make. And the W/T scene is definitely a good one, but so divorced from what they were doing in s7 that it must have been his own little bit of fanfic! ;-)