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[oyceter]

Sparked by superplin's old postI loved Buffy through the earlier seasons and admired her and thought she was great, but I never loved her more than in late season 5 and season 6, when she was depressed and downtrodden and angry. I loved her most when she was overwhelmed by the world, when she was thisclose to the breaking point, and when she sometimes

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[superplin]

So while I adore Buffy before her mother died, I understand Buffy afterwards.

Exactly. Perfectly put.

I think this is a good example of how one's individual perspective and experiences color perceptions of the show. A lot of people simply cannot relate to a person, fictional or otherwise, who has completely lost their sense of self, meaning and purpose, and who flounders with what others see as the "simple" basic aspects of everyday life. So it makes sense that they would find Buffy perplexing and irritating in the later seasons, if they don't understand this kind of mindset.

It would be very interesting to do some kind of psychological study matching profiles to character sympathies. (Or does that sound too much like Riley in The Replacement? Heh.)

[angeyja]

And I was thinking last night dozing off that the show seems to have some of the qualities of a mirror.

[superplin]

I loved Buffy every single season, except S7. I loved her most especially in S6.
I think the militarism thing just squicked me.

See, I think it was supposed to squick you. It squicked Buffy, too ("I don't want to lead them into war. It can't be the right thing," she tells Wood in Dirty Girls.) My interpretation of the whole "General Buffy" thing was that she was trying to do what she thought was expected of her, trying to conform to the--for want of a better term--classic patriarchal model of battle, against her own inclination and better judgment. Even Giles was pushing her in this direction, because that's all he knew to do. In the end, though, she was forced to admit that it didn't work, and it wasn't right, and she came up with a whole new model.

That's how I saw it, anyway. It's a big part of why I don't hate S7 at all, because this is a theme I can definitely get behind.

[aethel]

Interesting post. I like this remark:

I loved her most when she was overwhelmed by the world, when she was this close to the breaking point, and when she sometimes crossed over.Yes, yes! Not only do depression, apathy, and self-destructive behavior make good drama, but also it forced me to respect her. I always appreciated her Woman Warrior routine, but in the first two seasons I was really annoyed by the way she felt sorry for herself; she complained about not having things that I didn't have either, but she had so many things that I didn't have, and she just didn't appreciate them. I mean, she had superpowers! I wouldn't mind a few superpowers myself. :) But you seem not to have minded her little foibles as much as I did

[oyceter]

I liked her in the earlier seasons when she complained and everything, because I figured that's probably how I would be with superpowers...

And later, yeah -- none of the events that happened to her hit me (thank goodness!), but the depression and her way of acting out on it made complete emotional sense to me.

[katie_m]

Yeah, I was exactly the opposite. Her reaction to trauma is not mine; I lost my ability to identify with her in S6, and never really got it back.

Which is funny, because outside of the acting out with Spike thing - which has never been my style - I am more like depressed irritable overwhelmed Buffy than the earlier version. I suspect that I had the same reaction to her that I have to myself when I'm in those moods, which is something like "oh, for Christ's sake, get over yourself!" I do realize this isn't a helpful reaction, but there you are.

[oyceter]

*nods* I always find it interesting seeing how much people's identification with shows or characters coincides with their personalities.

A very obvious case here would be Vaughn resembling many guy friends I know who kept asking me for relationship advice and not listening to me. Most remarkably, a very good friend of mine who broke up and made up with his girlfriend at least five times, I swear.

[minim_calibre]

Word.

[oyceter]

Cool! I've never gotten a "word" before ^_^.

[avrelia]

Today seems like a Buffy Love Day - with your post, and Plin's new post. Which is a good thing.

I cannot quite relate to Buffy of earlier seasons, or to the most of high school for that matter. I like her, sure, but it is the later seasons when her problems, her emotional state began to resonate with me.

[oyceter]

Mine's mostly sparked by Plin's new post, which pointed me to Plin's old post. Fun to watch LJ trends ^_^.