Random complaining about Buffy S7
It kind of drives me crazy that Faith smoked in Season 7 of Buffy. Especially cause I don't recall her attempting to do so when she was over on Angel. Suddenly having her be a smoker was very indicative of how they seemed to have no real idea of how to write her over on Buffy. Faith in Angel S4 was pretty much everything she should have been, and then suddenly she heads over to Buffy and regresses. I've rationalized this in my own head as Faith trying to act like who she thinks Buffy and company expect her to act like, but honestly it's just aggravating.
To me, her smoking was just one of those many little cheap ploys the writers used in S7 of Buffy. It's right up there with "Is Giles the First? GASP!", "Joyce is trying to warn Dawn - oh wait, that was the First, even though somehow the First was throwing things around the room, something which it was shown to be incapable of doing in every other appearance it has," "The Turok Han being insanely difficult to kill one-on-one to suddenly slaying them five and six at a time," "The First exists in the hearts and minds of every person ever, but has no idea that Andrew is wearing a wire," and the ever popular "Buffy's completely moronic decision to attack the Chateau head-on for the SECOND time magically turns out to be the correct decision thanks to divine (writer) intervention" in terms of how dumb I find it.
Okay, well maybe it's not quite as dumb as some of those, but it just bothers me. Faith smoking should have been avoided for any number of reasons, not the least of which is because the "ex-prisoner smokes" thing is such a boring cliche, and the Buffyverse used to be about turning a cliche around.
Besides, I see Faith as being more inclined to go pick up a cigar than pick up a cigarette. That'd be the kind of "cool but unexpected" style that Faith has. I also don't see her sitting in jail and finding any reason to pick up a cigarette in the first place. Maybe she'd use them as currency to trade for items she wanted, but considering how Faith was focusing on redeeming herself and being a model prisoner I could see her avoiding all of that to begin with, and it's not like she would need to trade stuff to curry favors with anyone. She's obviously not worried about any kind of physical confrontation with anyone, guards included, so she doesn't need them for that.
It just speaks to me of the writers looking at Faith and going "Uh, how do we write her?"
To which one of the other writers replies, "I dunno. She's a street chick. What do street people do?"
"Curse, smoke, and have sex?"
"By golly, you're right! Well that was easy."
I know it probably seems like a strange thing to complain about, but hey, this is my little corner of the internet, so I get to complain about ridiculous things that bug me. Faith smoking is one of them. It seems like the kind of thing a bad fanfic author comes up with. Put her on a motorcycle, giver her a cigarette, make sure she has plenty of tattoos and piercings, and have her curse with every other word. That's how someone writes Faith when they don't care to get into her head at all, and it bothers me that that's the Faith we saw in S7 of Buffy.
I guess it's especially bothersome to me since Faith in Angel S4 really was great. She was a deep and nuanced character that made sense based off of who she was, and then she waltzes over to Sunnydale and turns into a walking cliche.
And yeah, yeah, I know. "That's what fanfiction is for."
Still bugs me.
To me, her smoking was just one of those many little cheap ploys the writers used in S7 of Buffy. It's right up there with "Is Giles the First? GASP!", "Joyce is trying to warn Dawn - oh wait, that was the First, even though somehow the First was throwing things around the room, something which it was shown to be incapable of doing in every other appearance it has," "The Turok Han being insanely difficult to kill one-on-one to suddenly slaying them five and six at a time," "The First exists in the hearts and minds of every person ever, but has no idea that Andrew is wearing a wire," and the ever popular "Buffy's completely moronic decision to attack the Chateau head-on for the SECOND time magically turns out to be the correct decision thanks to divine (writer) intervention" in terms of how dumb I find it.
Okay, well maybe it's not quite as dumb as some of those, but it just bothers me. Faith smoking should have been avoided for any number of reasons, not the least of which is because the "ex-prisoner smokes" thing is such a boring cliche, and the Buffyverse used to be about turning a cliche around.
Besides, I see Faith as being more inclined to go pick up a cigar than pick up a cigarette. That'd be the kind of "cool but unexpected" style that Faith has. I also don't see her sitting in jail and finding any reason to pick up a cigarette in the first place. Maybe she'd use them as currency to trade for items she wanted, but considering how Faith was focusing on redeeming herself and being a model prisoner I could see her avoiding all of that to begin with, and it's not like she would need to trade stuff to curry favors with anyone. She's obviously not worried about any kind of physical confrontation with anyone, guards included, so she doesn't need them for that.
It just speaks to me of the writers looking at Faith and going "Uh, how do we write her?"
To which one of the other writers replies, "I dunno. She's a street chick. What do street people do?"
"Curse, smoke, and have sex?"
"By golly, you're right! Well that was easy."
I know it probably seems like a strange thing to complain about, but hey, this is my little corner of the internet, so I get to complain about ridiculous things that bug me. Faith smoking is one of them. It seems like the kind of thing a bad fanfic author comes up with. Put her on a motorcycle, giver her a cigarette, make sure she has plenty of tattoos and piercings, and have her curse with every other word. That's how someone writes Faith when they don't care to get into her head at all, and it bothers me that that's the Faith we saw in S7 of Buffy.
I guess it's especially bothersome to me since Faith in Angel S4 really was great. She was a deep and nuanced character that made sense based off of who she was, and then she waltzes over to Sunnydale and turns into a walking cliche.
And yeah, yeah, I know. "That's what fanfiction is for."
Still bugs me.