Out of the cradle and into the coffin.
THE ANSWER IS SHOCKING. IT WILL SHOCK YOU.
Favorite Season
Season 6, baby. (I HOPE YOU ARE ALL SUITABLY SHOCKED.)
Aaaand I’m gonna pimp longerthanwedo again, because. Best picspammer on my flist. WITH ADDED LYRICALNESS. Also, to anybody who does not follow it, gabrielleabelle ’s Buffy Came Back Wrong meta series. READ IT. OR WE CAN NOT BE FRIENDS.
So. S6. What up. Of course, I have nattered on about my flaily love for it quite a lot in times past, so I’ll attempt to keep this short.
So here it goes. First season of BtVS to gut me. Everybody loves s2, I know. I love it too. But I can’t say that I can exactly relate to it. It’s all quite epic and melodramatic and out of this world.
But S6. S6, man. That hits home. I’m sure it says ~interesting things about me that as a 15-year-old watching through the series for the first time, S6 resonated with me on a level the early seasons don’t even touch. But it is what it is, yo. ‘High school is hell’ is quite pertinent - when you’re in high school. S6 is timeless. S6 will continue to resonate when I’m 60.
I’m just gonna focus here on the Buffy of it, because who am I.
I understand that the heroine being depressed for an entire season doesn’t ~work~ for some people. Makes her difficult to relate to unless you’ve experienced depression yourself, supposedly. I say bullshit. Season 6 is crucial for Buffy because this is Buffy as one of us. You can’t put her on a pedestal through this. You can’t expect ‘better’ from her because ~she’s a hero tho. Stop doing it. S6 shines a light on the viewer’s expectations, and deconstructs the hell out of them. It's a no-brainer that the first glimpse of Buffy we get is the image of the perfect, shiny, (almost) immaculately-constructed Buffy!bot. A parody of the peppy, quippy teen other characters (and undoubtedly some viewers) probably wish Buffy still was.
It’s not like I don’t get it. The first time I flew through the season, I found myself constantly. angry. at Buffy. I felt like her headspace was one I really did not need or want to be in, but the show kept trying to push me in there and my reaction was along the lines of NO STOP IT GOD IT’S BAD ENOUGH IN HERE ALREADY. Buffy Summers, I love you because you are aspirational. Not because you have all my worst qualities on all my bad days. Cut that shit out. I was more inclined to identify with Spike because while he may be an immense fuck up that season (or, you know, whenever), he was never lacking in feeling. I would see Buffy struggling to feel and just feel depressed as hell myself. I was particularly made furious by her constant attempt to Be Okay for her friends. Constant fury. So much fuckery.
But then, you know. Some self-reflection, please. Who am I kidding. We are like the same person.
So there’s a revelation. Buffy Summers really is ~just like you~. And not in a OH LOOK SHE DREAMS ABOUT ATTENDING PROM WITH HER BOYFRIEND TOOOOO… way.
Rather, it's that she is not invulnerable. Her trauma sticks. She’s capable of being damaged immensely, and then dealing with it badly. She’s capable of wanting to give up on the world. She’s capable of being so angry at her friends she subconsciously wants to kill them. She’s capable of not being capable of ~bouncing back (a la season 3) after said immense trauma.
I was talking in my last post about how much I love “Something To Sing About” because it’s so superficially chipper, while actually being really UTTERLY BLEAK, and the reason I LOVE that is because it shows that Buffy is completely. aware. of what the world wants to see from her. And she’s completely aware of how incapable she is of providing it any longer. Buffy summers in S6 is a human trying not to want to die under the weight of her own failings.
Who does not relate to that. Who.
And this is why S6 is rad, people. It takes your ideal of what a heroine should be. Smashes it, grinds it into the dirt. I can no longer abide the Xanderific response of putting Buffy on a pedestal and then judging her for falling off it. Missing the damn point.
Oh look I got all rambly about the Buffster. Everyone is shocked.
But Buffy’s not the ONLY thing I love this season. Hell no. I love all the others too. I love Xander. I love Willow. I love Tara - for the first time. I love Giles and his bad-ass Two To Go entrance. I love Dawn and her bad-ass demon fighting in Grave. I love Anya and every word of her wedding vows. I love my boy Spike. I love my two fucked up kids and their fucked up ways. (But that’s a topic for another day. Tomorrow, actually. Stay tuned.) I love the Trio. I love Jonathan, despite how far he’s fallen. I love Andrew, for how far he has to climb. I love Warren and his horrifying rage. Though, I love Willow flaying him too. I LOVE DARTH WILLOW. I love that Xander’s the one to bring her back, because they’re unshakable BFFs, yo. (Whatever, I love that yellow crayon speech.) I LOVE CLEM. I love musical time and amnesia time and impulsive murder time and mental institution time. And you better believe I love destroying-the-world time.
Of course, S6 is not without its flaws. Flaws that I’m sure other people have expounded on in great detail in places that are not here. :) It’s a flawed, flawed season. And yet. Still emotionally brilliant. Favorite of the seasons. No apologies.
Lol this was almost short but not really.
Favorite Season
Season 6, baby. (I HOPE YOU ARE ALL SUITABLY SHOCKED.)
Aaaand I’m gonna pimp longerthanwedo again, because. Best picspammer on my flist. WITH ADDED LYRICALNESS. Also, to anybody who does not follow it, gabrielleabelle ’s Buffy Came Back Wrong meta series. READ IT. OR WE CAN NOT BE FRIENDS.
So. S6. What up. Of course, I have nattered on about my flaily love for it quite a lot in times past, so I’ll attempt to keep this short.
So here it goes. First season of BtVS to gut me. Everybody loves s2, I know. I love it too. But I can’t say that I can exactly relate to it. It’s all quite epic and melodramatic and out of this world.
But S6. S6, man. That hits home. I’m sure it says ~interesting things about me that as a 15-year-old watching through the series for the first time, S6 resonated with me on a level the early seasons don’t even touch. But it is what it is, yo. ‘High school is hell’ is quite pertinent - when you’re in high school. S6 is timeless. S6 will continue to resonate when I’m 60.
I’m just gonna focus here on the Buffy of it, because who am I.
I understand that the heroine being depressed for an entire season doesn’t ~work~ for some people. Makes her difficult to relate to unless you’ve experienced depression yourself, supposedly. I say bullshit. Season 6 is crucial for Buffy because this is Buffy as one of us. You can’t put her on a pedestal through this. You can’t expect ‘better’ from her because ~she’s a hero tho. Stop doing it. S6 shines a light on the viewer’s expectations, and deconstructs the hell out of them. It's a no-brainer that the first glimpse of Buffy we get is the image of the perfect, shiny, (almost) immaculately-constructed Buffy!bot. A parody of the peppy, quippy teen other characters (and undoubtedly some viewers) probably wish Buffy still was.
It’s not like I don’t get it. The first time I flew through the season, I found myself constantly. angry. at Buffy. I felt like her headspace was one I really did not need or want to be in, but the show kept trying to push me in there and my reaction was along the lines of NO STOP IT GOD IT’S BAD ENOUGH IN HERE ALREADY. Buffy Summers, I love you because you are aspirational. Not because you have all my worst qualities on all my bad days. Cut that shit out. I was more inclined to identify with Spike because while he may be an immense fuck up that season (or, you know, whenever), he was never lacking in feeling. I would see Buffy struggling to feel and just feel depressed as hell myself. I was particularly made furious by her constant attempt to Be Okay for her friends. Constant fury. So much fuckery.
But then, you know. Some self-reflection, please. Who am I kidding. We are like the same person.
So there’s a revelation. Buffy Summers really is ~just like you~. And not in a OH LOOK SHE DREAMS ABOUT ATTENDING PROM WITH HER BOYFRIEND TOOOOO… way.
Rather, it's that she is not invulnerable. Her trauma sticks. She’s capable of being damaged immensely, and then dealing with it badly. She’s capable of wanting to give up on the world. She’s capable of being so angry at her friends she subconsciously wants to kill them. She’s capable of not being capable of ~bouncing back (a la season 3) after said immense trauma.
I was talking in my last post about how much I love “Something To Sing About” because it’s so superficially chipper, while actually being really UTTERLY BLEAK, and the reason I LOVE that is because it shows that Buffy is completely. aware. of what the world wants to see from her. And she’s completely aware of how incapable she is of providing it any longer. Buffy summers in S6 is a human trying not to want to die under the weight of her own failings.
Who does not relate to that. Who.
And this is why S6 is rad, people. It takes your ideal of what a heroine should be. Smashes it, grinds it into the dirt. I can no longer abide the Xanderific response of putting Buffy on a pedestal and then judging her for falling off it. Missing the damn point.
Oh look I got all rambly about the Buffster. Everyone is shocked.
But Buffy’s not the ONLY thing I love this season. Hell no. I love all the others too. I love Xander. I love Willow. I love Tara - for the first time. I love Giles and his bad-ass Two To Go entrance. I love Dawn and her bad-ass demon fighting in Grave. I love Anya and every word of her wedding vows. I love my boy Spike. I love my two fucked up kids and their fucked up ways. (But that’s a topic for another day. Tomorrow, actually. Stay tuned.) I love the Trio. I love Jonathan, despite how far he’s fallen. I love Andrew, for how far he has to climb. I love Warren and his horrifying rage. Though, I love Willow flaying him too. I LOVE DARTH WILLOW. I love that Xander’s the one to bring her back, because they’re unshakable BFFs, yo. (Whatever, I love that yellow crayon speech.) I LOVE CLEM. I love musical time and amnesia time and impulsive murder time and mental institution time. And you better believe I love destroying-the-world time.
Of course, S6 is not without its flaws. Flaws that I’m sure other people have expounded on in great detail in places that are not here. :) It’s a flawed, flawed season. And yet. Still emotionally brilliant. Favorite of the seasons. No apologies.
Lol this was almost short but not really.