unpopular fannish opinions. again.

[wisdomeagle]

I'm having so much fun reading these unpopular fannish opinions that I felt the urge to have some of my very own. I might have gone overboard just a bit. There are 12 unpopular Angel opinions, 10 unpopular Buffy opinions, 10 unpopular general Jossverse opinions, and 20 popular opinions, just for kicks.

[spoilers through NFA]

Comments

[hermionesviolin]

Yay for discussion! We have established quite definitively that we do not share a brain, but it's probably better that way :)

Oh, critical analysis to the point where one forgets what one loves the show, yes, i definitely agree that that's a bad thing.

I'm a big fan of Spuffy, but i can see the discussion being head-spinning and thus leading to not-caring and am not going to force you to engage in a thorough discussion with me since you're content to just leave me to my opinions.

I'm not sure if i ever particularly identify with Buffy, but a friend of mine was a senior in college that year and really identified and her talk has ever since colored how i look at S6. I think even without her, though, i would have appreciated the idea of Life/Adulthood As Enemy and other such themes (though i loathed her decision to work at DMP; asking for a monetary settlement sufficient to last until Dawn was out of college would have been the sensible thing to do -- though i suppose one could argue that she was having self-loathing issues and an actual job was the highest she could bring herself to aspire to, and of course there's the meta that they needed her to have a day job that ground her down to complement eveything else grinding her down).

Yes, please do call me Elizabeth. (Unless you come up with some witty nickname, of course :) ) I tend to call everyone by their "real" names unless told not to (or unless i don't know their non-LJ names). I understand people wanting to keep online/fannish identities separate from their other identities, but i'm not into making an active effort in that direction for a variety of reasons. And i'm rather attached to my given name, though i enjoy how my parents refer to me as Hermione when they comment on my LJ so that people know to whom they're referring.

[wisdomeagle]

True, true. I already share a brain with Gvambat and there's really not room for more people in there.

Yes, you're entirely free to feel whatever you would like about Spuffy. I've read way too much meta on it, since it's a popular topic for meta, and have been told that:
-It was a horribly abusive relationship for both of them
-It was in fact a genuine romance
-Spike almost raped Buffy
-Buffy raped Spike
-Buffy's abuse of Spike was worse than Spike's of Buffy
-But of course anyone who believes that is in the habit of blaming the victim
-S7 should have dealt with it and then had them move on
-S7 they should have had sex, PCness be damned
-Spike was entirely to blame for the AR
-Spike wasn't at all to blame for the AR
-Buffy was to blame
-Or possibly Marti
-And also of course Joss, who's fault it all is.
-they were in a BDSM 'ship without a safeword and shit happens
-Their relationship had no BDSM elements whatsoever

Personally I think that Spike should have gone to Africa to get a soul, and they should have played it straight, no stupid gimmick that leaves us all confused three years later, and then fought all the battles and then gotten his soul and then -- nothing. He felt exactly the same, the same guilt, the same desires, the same. Because dammit, that's where they were headed and it would have been interesting.

When I saw that the S6 overview on the DVD was called "Life is the Big Bad" I was totally struck and that's how I see the season and it works so well for me.

I totally sympathize with Buffy's financial problems since I couldn't even get a summer job last summer, not even working at the real life equivalent of a DMP. Also like Buffy, I can't drive. And that's about where my identification with her begins and ends, but S6 I totally get her. Except that she's a bitch to Spike, but honestly, on watching it for the second time, I was less appalled by her behavior towards him.

Elizabeth it is, then. I suck at witty nicknames, and the only one I ever bestowed's recipient has been trying for four years to make me stop calling her "Ska."

You, by the way, may call me wisdomeagle or Ari or RE or Ruth Ellen, although I generally prefer Ari for ol discussion and in fact it feels odd to have people call me by my full name now since I've been nicknamed for so long, but if you call me Ruth, I'll have to beat you with a virtual stick.

[hermionesviolin]

And i rather enjoy not sharing my brain, so it’s all good :)

I’ve read post-“Grave” fic wherein Spike is haunted by those he killed, a la Angel in “Amends.” The fact that soul-having doesn’t change anything in him (his early-S7 insanity was ambiguous about whether it was the result of having a soul or the influence of The First, and evidence leans toward the latter) says to me that those of us who thought Spike didn’t need a soul (oh, ye olde days of wondering whether Spike had somehow “grown” a soul) were right, which makes the writers’ decision that he did need a soul even worse. (I also find myself reminded of mpoetess’ fic “What We Have.”)

I think i remember hearing about an interview in which Joss said that in S5 the Big Bad was Death and in S6 it was Life. (Meta like this is also one reason i like being involved in fandom -- i get to hear about behind-the-scenes stuff like actors leaving and forcing the writers to retool story arcs, and the directorial thinking behind certain things. And yes, now everyone has access via DVD commentary, but i liked hearing about it as it was happening, so it could inform my thoughts as i watched.)

I don’t drive, but not because of the anxiety/klutziness issues that Buffy has, just because i live in an area where a car isn’t a necessity and for most of my life my family didn’t have a car and i didn’t wanna pay lots of money to a driver’s ed program i’d heard was horrible. And i’ve been blessed to snag jobs i love and which i can come back to year after year. I've never had that dark transition, feeling alienated, etc., period like what Buffy had in S6.

And what is this about being surprised about discussion? You’re smart. You say smart things. Smart people read your LJ. Where’s the surprise?

[wisdomeagle]

The fact that soul-having doesn’t change anything in him (his early-S7 insanity was ambiguous about whether it was the result of having a soul or the influence of The First, and evidence leans toward the latter) says to me that those of us who thought Spike didn’t need a soul (oh, ye olde days of wondering whether Spike had somehow “grown” a soul) were right, which makes the writers’ decision that he did need a soul even worse.

Hmm. Dunno. I'd say that there are some definate differences in his attitude towards Buffy in S7 that seem to be the result of the soul... and I think they didn't really touch very deeply on what the implications of said soul were, either in S7 or in S5. But it's never been the most interesting bit of the mythology to me, so I leave it in peace. Although I do think it wasn't the best choice ME could've made.

And what is this about being surprised about discussion? You’re smart. You say smart things. Smart people read your LJ.

Aww. :p