This Will Do
Amy and Alexis perform Fred's the death scene so wonderfully. It's gorgeous. And, honestly, it's Spike's line to Angel on the bridge that just sells the entire thing for me. All that pain and hurt and knowing what they have to do.
"There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known."
Not only does this episode emphasise the relationship between Fred and Wesley, but also Spike and Angel.
Earlier in the episode, Spike has the line that Angel "just want[s] it to be the way the [he] want[s] it to be." Which is a rather accurate summation of Angel's character, which we see throughout the series, and something that shows up again at the end. Angel gets pretty damn close to taking thousands of lives to save one girl, because he wants her to be alright, and he's willing to change things and ignore the consequences.
Spike is a fantastically stubborn creature, but true to his nature, he sees that saving Fred's life is not an option. It would hurt to many people, and he understands that Fred would be unable to live with the knowledge that her life cost many others of theirs.
It's a very strange and beautiful moment, for me anyway, of watching him lean over to look down the well. A strange little look into the poet that we haven't been seeing much of this season. But again, as established way back in Season Three of Buffy, Spike is the one who can see things for exactly what they are, even when they aren't pretty.
And Spike and Angel's relationship is sort of stripped down to its core. Okay, at this point we hadn't really known they'd been sexually involved, but what's here is beyond that. Here we see that, way deep down there, under the antagonism and disapproval, Angel has some level of respect for Spike. Despite spending much of the preceding episodes vehemently denying Spike's status as anywhere near his, Angel really doesn't think much about referring to Spike as a champion.
So, deep down, as much as I absolutely love Fred, and as much as I hate that she died, I'm still a little glad that she did. If she hadn't, we wouldn't have gotten to see the amazing acting they all do.
I think this is true for just about every character that was killed off in any of the Joss Whedon shows. You really get to see the whole range of emotions and you get to see what incredible actors the cast is and how believable and painful their death is. And I respect that. Joyce and Fred may have been the best for these. I mean, how many other shows give you the episode of grieving? Not of wallowing in sadness, but of moving through it? "The Body" is absolutely incredible for just that.
As for Buffy, and her death, I actually would have been interested in having her remained dead longer than she did, or even permanently stay dead, just because of the reactions of the characters and the wonderful new group dynamics that her death created.
Don't think I dislike Buffy, but 6.01 "Bargaining, Part One" is just about my favourite episode. I love the strangeness that comes from seeing Willow completely in charge, as was foreshadowed a bit in 5.21 "The Weight of the World". I love the mourning and the sadness around the group, even as they're moving on. And I just absolutely love Spike and Dawn throughout the entire episode. I always loved their friendship and I just thought this episode was so great, with him looking out for her, just like he'd promised.
There are very few deaths in the Jossverse that I really, truly, one-hundred percent wish hadn't happened. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and say there are two.
First, Tara. I felt like her death just lost the show more than it gained. She was a fantastic characters, played by a wonderful actress, and she had just gotten all this character development to make her even more amazing. And then she's dead. And I feel as if they didn't take her death as far as they could have. Dawn has a breakdown for a few hours, and Willow tries to end the world, but by Season Seven, everyone seems a little to over it for me. And then, what ever over-it-ness Willow is still lacking, that's suddenly, completely solved because, hey, now you get whiny-bitchy-bossy Kennedy instead!
I just felt like such a loss for me.
And the other one is Wash. I get it, I do. It was completely shocking. The first time I saw "Serenity" I even knew he was going to die and I was still completely shocked. I spent the entire preceding sequence a complete nervous wreck, waiting for him to die, and the he didn't. So I thought I'd have more time with him and as he relaxes, I relax and then-- BAM! I legitimately could not breath for about thirty seconds I was so shocked.
I mean, that's what's great about Joss Whedon. He does know exactly how ot make you feel like you're the one being impaled in the gut. No one else can make me feel like that, no one else can make me as attached to the characters I'm watching as he does.
But I do wish we'd gotten more from Wash's death. Zoe is upset, pretty much goes to commit suicide, Jayne rescues her, and then the plot moves on. I don't mean to say we should have stopped to grieve, that wouldn't have fit, it was the heat of the battle and you're going to loose people. But since it was Wash, who is married, part of the only couple at that point, I think we could have done a little more about him at the end.
But maybe that's just me.
The only other character I'm sort of on the fence about having died is Darla.
Maybe I'm just crazy, but I really am a big Darla fan. She's strong and gorgeous and powerful and confident and pretty much a badass. Sure, she's annoying and whiny in Season One, but after that she's awesome. And I think the point at which they chose to kill her off ( for the fourth time I mean, I thought the other three worked well) was at a time when they had a chance to try something very different with her character, and it could have been interesting to keep her around. She'd be awkwardly involved with the Angel Investigations crew, planted in the middle of the Angel/Cordelia love mess, and trying to get into the whole motherhood deal. We've seen her mother Dru just a little bit, and we know she really, truly does love her son. So I think it would have been very interesting to keep her around.
But they didn't. And that worked too. So I'm not completely convinced that her death shouldn't have happened.
There are some deaths that I know people didn't like, one's that felt sudden and to fast, but I really do approve the "heat of the battle" deaths. It happens. As Spike points out, "There's always casualties in a war." Just because this is someone we love, just because we've seen them so much and known them for so long, just because we know their names and their background, doesn't mean they'll survive.
Anya, Wesley, Mellie, Paul, Topher.
I approved of them. They hurt and the characters and the story couldn't slow down, couldn't stop for them. It added realism and drama and pain and everything else that's true to the world.
Honestly, Anya's death is probably one of my favourite deaths ever. It's so abruptly sudden, and completely unexpected, and is pretty much inconsequential, even though we've known her for five years, even though she's gone through all this pain and angst, and then all of a sudden she's just dead. And it doesn't even hit you.
I remember watching it for the first time, and some back part of me was shocked, but the rest of me was so caught up in the battle and in Spike and in everything else that was happening that I couldn't even stop to think about it until it was over and then I just... sat there and went, "Oh my God, Anya's dead." And it took a while for it to really hit me, and it just felt so real.
(Originally sent as a text message, yes, on 19/6/12)
"There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known."
Not only does this episode emphasise the relationship between Fred and Wesley, but also Spike and Angel.
Earlier in the episode, Spike has the line that Angel "just want[s] it to be the way the [he] want[s] it to be." Which is a rather accurate summation of Angel's character, which we see throughout the series, and something that shows up again at the end. Angel gets pretty damn close to taking thousands of lives to save one girl, because he wants her to be alright, and he's willing to change things and ignore the consequences.
Spike is a fantastically stubborn creature, but true to his nature, he sees that saving Fred's life is not an option. It would hurt to many people, and he understands that Fred would be unable to live with the knowledge that her life cost many others of theirs.
It's a very strange and beautiful moment, for me anyway, of watching him lean over to look down the well. A strange little look into the poet that we haven't been seeing much of this season. But again, as established way back in Season Three of Buffy, Spike is the one who can see things for exactly what they are, even when they aren't pretty.
And Spike and Angel's relationship is sort of stripped down to its core. Okay, at this point we hadn't really known they'd been sexually involved, but what's here is beyond that. Here we see that, way deep down there, under the antagonism and disapproval, Angel has some level of respect for Spike. Despite spending much of the preceding episodes vehemently denying Spike's status as anywhere near his, Angel really doesn't think much about referring to Spike as a champion.
So, deep down, as much as I absolutely love Fred, and as much as I hate that she died, I'm still a little glad that she did. If she hadn't, we wouldn't have gotten to see the amazing acting they all do.
I think this is true for just about every character that was killed off in any of the Joss Whedon shows. You really get to see the whole range of emotions and you get to see what incredible actors the cast is and how believable and painful their death is. And I respect that. Joyce and Fred may have been the best for these. I mean, how many other shows give you the episode of grieving? Not of wallowing in sadness, but of moving through it? "The Body" is absolutely incredible for just that.
As for Buffy, and her death, I actually would have been interested in having her remained dead longer than she did, or even permanently stay dead, just because of the reactions of the characters and the wonderful new group dynamics that her death created.
Don't think I dislike Buffy, but 6.01 "Bargaining, Part One" is just about my favourite episode. I love the strangeness that comes from seeing Willow completely in charge, as was foreshadowed a bit in 5.21 "The Weight of the World". I love the mourning and the sadness around the group, even as they're moving on. And I just absolutely love Spike and Dawn throughout the entire episode. I always loved their friendship and I just thought this episode was so great, with him looking out for her, just like he'd promised.
There are very few deaths in the Jossverse that I really, truly, one-hundred percent wish hadn't happened. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and say there are two.
First, Tara. I felt like her death just lost the show more than it gained. She was a fantastic characters, played by a wonderful actress, and she had just gotten all this character development to make her even more amazing. And then she's dead. And I feel as if they didn't take her death as far as they could have. Dawn has a breakdown for a few hours, and Willow tries to end the world, but by Season Seven, everyone seems a little to over it for me. And then, what ever over-it-ness Willow is still lacking, that's suddenly, completely solved because, hey, now you get whiny-bitchy-bossy Kennedy instead!
I just felt like such a loss for me.
And the other one is Wash. I get it, I do. It was completely shocking. The first time I saw "Serenity" I even knew he was going to die and I was still completely shocked. I spent the entire preceding sequence a complete nervous wreck, waiting for him to die, and the he didn't. So I thought I'd have more time with him and as he relaxes, I relax and then-- BAM! I legitimately could not breath for about thirty seconds I was so shocked.
I mean, that's what's great about Joss Whedon. He does know exactly how ot make you feel like you're the one being impaled in the gut. No one else can make me feel like that, no one else can make me as attached to the characters I'm watching as he does.
But I do wish we'd gotten more from Wash's death. Zoe is upset, pretty much goes to commit suicide, Jayne rescues her, and then the plot moves on. I don't mean to say we should have stopped to grieve, that wouldn't have fit, it was the heat of the battle and you're going to loose people. But since it was Wash, who is married, part of the only couple at that point, I think we could have done a little more about him at the end.
But maybe that's just me.
The only other character I'm sort of on the fence about having died is Darla.
Maybe I'm just crazy, but I really am a big Darla fan. She's strong and gorgeous and powerful and confident and pretty much a badass. Sure, she's annoying and whiny in Season One, but after that she's awesome. And I think the point at which they chose to kill her off ( for the fourth time I mean, I thought the other three worked well) was at a time when they had a chance to try something very different with her character, and it could have been interesting to keep her around. She'd be awkwardly involved with the Angel Investigations crew, planted in the middle of the Angel/Cordelia love mess, and trying to get into the whole motherhood deal. We've seen her mother Dru just a little bit, and we know she really, truly does love her son. So I think it would have been very interesting to keep her around.
But they didn't. And that worked too. So I'm not completely convinced that her death shouldn't have happened.
There are some deaths that I know people didn't like, one's that felt sudden and to fast, but I really do approve the "heat of the battle" deaths. It happens. As Spike points out, "There's always casualties in a war." Just because this is someone we love, just because we've seen them so much and known them for so long, just because we know their names and their background, doesn't mean they'll survive.
Anya, Wesley, Mellie, Paul, Topher.
I approved of them. They hurt and the characters and the story couldn't slow down, couldn't stop for them. It added realism and drama and pain and everything else that's true to the world.
Honestly, Anya's death is probably one of my favourite deaths ever. It's so abruptly sudden, and completely unexpected, and is pretty much inconsequential, even though we've known her for five years, even though she's gone through all this pain and angst, and then all of a sudden she's just dead. And it doesn't even hit you.
I remember watching it for the first time, and some back part of me was shocked, but the rest of me was so caught up in the battle and in Spike and in everything else that was happening that I couldn't even stop to think about it until it was over and then I just... sat there and went, "Oh my God, Anya's dead." And it took a while for it to really hit me, and it just felt so real.
(Originally sent as a text message, yes, on 19/6/12)