Actor Features and Canon (First Ever Poll [I think])
So I was watching The Dark Age earlier and the whole tattoo thing got me to thinking, at what point does an actor's feature become established canon? For instance, Marsters has a scar on his eyebrow. There was nothing in the scripts to say Spike was to have a scar on his eyebrow, but there it was. Was it not really canon up to the point in Fool For
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Is that part of the reason her clothes became a bit more conservative from S5 on, or was that SMG exercising greater power and control over her wardrobe? Or neither - Buffy looks considerably older in the way she is dressed and filmed, in her hair etc just from S4 to S5, so I assume it was so we'd accept Buffy as "single mom" to Dawn after Joyce died.
I picked the second choice - there actor is not the character, after al, but I want to see a certain adherence to the appearance of the actor, not this "make it look like Buffy but not SMG" nonsense. Bad enough, but she doesn't even look like Buffy, depending on whose doing the artwork - I looked at Jeanty's illustrations a couple of months ago and wondered "Who the heck is that 14 year old kewpie doll? That can't be...?"
Oh and TV!Buffy would be horrified by comics!Buffy's complete lack of style or fashion sense. Just sayin'.
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Gellar had clothing input starting in S3, I think. Away went the miniskirts and boots. Hard to tell who made the fashion choices since there were wardrobe people, but I've seen photos of her out and about in the same clothes, so at least some of them were hers.
I looked at Jeanty's illustrations a couple of months ago and wondered "Who the heck is that 14 year old kewpie doll? That can't be...?"
He's horrible, but tragically I wouldn't call him the worst Buffy artist. Hector Gomez gets that title, IMO. I don't think there is much care given to the art of Buffy. Most are horribly drawn with bad coloring. Willow had blue eyes in the first issues of S8. Just gah. Even Buffy has blue eyes in some of the non-canon Buffy comics.
Buffy wouldn't be caught dead in the crap comic!Buffy wears. But comic!Buffy isn't really Buffy at all so they don't surprise.
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I tried looking up his artwork and either I thought it wasn't any worse than Jeanty, or else I wasn't looking at the right person's work. (Some of those comics websites are very confusing, I find.) But, yes - the carelessness is amazing. (the only person in S8 who looked like "himself" I thought was Xander. Like, they took care to make him look like Xander and at the same time rather attractive (and also a bit younger and in better shape than NB was in S7.) they also took a bit of care with his dialogue from what I did read of the comics. that, and the fact that they had buffy professing her love to him *squick* tells me that the writers like and identify with Xander "Oh why doesn't Buffy see what a prince he is!" more than Buffy - Willow, I'm not so sure either way.
But comic!Buffy isn't really Buffy at all so they don't surprise.I keep telling myself that - and on a Watsonian level (the actual 'verse or story), the two have no connection for me at all; but on the Doylist level the ( ... )
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I think he's horrible. Bad compositions and everyone looks the same...and disturbingly cat-like. Jeanty can at least on occasion come up with some interesting framing.
S8 was written for Xander fans, IMO. It plays to every possible bitter beta male trope. He's everyone's confidante, Buffy's watcher and everyone, even the girl he wanted but never stood a chance with is in love with him. So blatantly transparent.
I think on some level it's the point. Part of me still thinks the BTVS comics are to comics what CItW was to the horror genre, basically mocking it by becoming it. I'll lay dollars to donuts it ends in a reset and we find out something has been screwy the whole time. It's yet another comic cliche and pretty much the only one they have yet to use.
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WORD. That was exactly the vibe I got - he's Gary Stu in this. Even the most interesting relationship was him and Renee - her death scene was extremely well-done and even poignant on a level that most of the rest of the comics came nowhere near. They did a better job making me care about an OC's death than about Giles'. That speaks volumes.
Too bad they felt the need to kill off the one African-American supporting character/Slayer. That speaks volumes, too.
Part of me still thinks the BTVS comics are to comics what CItW was to the horror genre, basically mocking it by becoming it.
And again I quote Audre Lorde: You can't dismantle the master's house using the master's tools. But then again, that was never the point - they like their treehouse/mansion very very much.
I'll lay ( ... )
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And again I quote Audre Lorde: You can't dismantle the master's house using the master's tools. But then again, that was never the point - they like their treehouse/mansion very very much.
Exactly. And he keeps doing it. Oh, it's *supposed* to be creepy and objectifying in Dollhouse. This changes anything how? If anything it only heightens the misogynist fantasy by doing that.
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I have to keep reminding myself that for all the "Buffy is a feminist icon" talk, BtVS was never a feminist show - "progressive but not transgressive" is how one person described it, but I'd say that might be generous. "Liberal but not progressive" actually. And sometimes even reactionary. So the comics really shouldn't surprise me at all, should they.
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I think the character herself worked as an icon, but the show? Not so much. Sometimes I wonder just how much of it was even Joss-driven and not the urgings of the network and a star with clout. Would Buffy have been wearing go-go boots and minis in S5 if not for Gellar? Who knows.
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Your comments remind me of something eowyn_315 wrote in a conversation about issue 8.34 (the spacefrakking)
I think it bothers me even more because it gives the impression that SMG's nudity clause was the only thing standing between Buffy and total exploitation. Which is really sad.
http://gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com/216802.html?thread=7808994#t7808994
Her comment is one I just cannot shake from my head, because I suspect that she's 100% right, just as you are.
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Entirely possible, but I don't know. Joss definitely had the mentality. I remember I think he said one of the ideas behind Willow's costume in Halloween was for the fans to see her as "hot". And there were some shots in episodes he directed that were probably pushing it in the gaze sense.
Then again, he's said some things that might suggest otherwise like being creeped out by the overdubbing on the Amends scene. I think Joss is a guy who's aware of his own issues, it's just he plays to them anyway.
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