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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.

[avrelia]

Also, I get confused by Lies, and without re-hashing my qualms about Lies thing, the defence which is offered, that Nikki died an honourable death, the death of the good warrior - if that isn't accepting the military mindset, I don't know what is!

This defence was offered by Spike, who has some valid points, but he is not necessarily a voice of The Only Truth. Buffy herself feels sorry for Wood - having to grow up without a mother, but not because of her military mindset, I think, but because Nikki was the Slayer - as Buffy is, the Slayer life expectancy is quite short, and Buffy already died twice, she knows the stakes better than anybody else; so it is not a military mindset, it is an acceptance of what comes from being the Slayer. Of course, Buffy at the moment is not in the best emotional place, either.

And Get it Done really disturbs me because I used to think Slayer Power was a positive. A metaphor for Buffy's imaginative, emotional and intellectual power. And now we learn it is the ultimate act of victimisation, a metaphor

[oyceter]

Yeah, me too. I think I liked her up till around maybe Showtime, after which the understanding went rapidly downhill. It's strange how opaque she was to me then when she felt so transparent in S6.

[oyceter]

Definitely. I always find reading romance reviews extremely interesting, because I think romances tend to be influenced by the personal, above most genres.

Hee! I think that would be interesting!