Comments | boot_the_grime: Buffy rewatch: 2.21. Becoming, part 1

boot_the_grime

Buffy rewatch: 2.21. Becoming, part 1

Nov 14, 2011 05:38

So there it is, finally, the season 2 two-part finale. This season has been really amazing, especially its second part, or more precisely the arc about Angel losing his soul and going bad; and Becoming is a near-perfect finale.

There is a big theme of Destiny vs Free will running through this two-parter. As the title says, it is all about ( Read more... )

joss whedon, season 2, buffy, rewatch, buffy the vampire slayer

Comments 11

eilowyn November 14 2011, 06:02:00 UTC

Maybe it's because I saw season 5 first (after seeing the movie as a child) and instantaneously became a diehard Spike fan, maybe because I'm so against the "Buffy and Angel 4-Eva" mythology that certain fans ascribe to season 2, maybe it's because I don't buy the PTB's brilliant scheme to get a guy with a lolita complex to help a girl with daddy issues, but the fact is that this episode isn't as effective for me. Season 5 was all I saw for several years (we only got the WB for season 5, and never did get UPN, so I only saw season 5 and seasons 3-5 of Angel, though that never compelled me as much) until I saw season 6 on re-runs, so in my mind Angel was this other guy who didn't matter to Buffy. When I finally bought the DVD set and saw the series all the way through, these episodes weren't as powerful for me as they seem to be for other fans. The run through the hallways is memorable, but the flashbacks are just painful due to DB's terrible acting (though Julie Benz tries to add gravity - she plays the seductress perfectly.) I don't ( ... )

boot_the_grime November 14 2011, 12:56:52 UTC

I don't think the enjoyment of season 2 has anything to do with subscribing to "Buffy and Angel 4-Eva" mythology. For starters, season 2 never introduced the mythology in the first place. Their relationship was portrayed as a tragic romance, but not as an ideal romance (at best, it was barely functional, even before he lost his soul). The whole "Angel turns evil" arc was meant to echo the "guy turns into a jerk after you sleep with him" real life situation. The idea that it's all about the cruel forces of fate separating Buffy and her One True Love is Bangel fanon ( ... )

boot_the_grime November 14 2011, 12:57:22 UTC

I guess if you have such a distaste for Angel it might be hard to watch something where he has a big role. He was always one of my favorite characters in the verse, but while at the beginning I just liked him (I happened to see some episodes of AtS season 1 before I saw BtVS, which helped, since that was when he was at his most likeable), later on it became more of an enjoyment of a character because he is such an incredibly messed up guy, someone who appears to be a hero but is really a very dark anti-hero. One difference in watching season 2 now is that I'm able to analyze the motivations of soulless Angel aka "Angelus" - the first time I just felt visceral hatred for him (no, I never thought he was another guy, that's another piece of Bangel fanon that I was really surprised to learn, it never even occurred to me while watching the show. Season 2 never portrayed Angel's souled and soulless selves as different people, and used the name "Angel" for both.)

it's because I don't buy the PTB's brilliant scheme to get a guy with a lolita ( ... )

norwie2010 November 14 2011, 07:34:11 UTC

Buffy in Becoming makes the point to Xander that Angel didn’t choose what happened to him (which is true both fof Angel becoming a vampire and for losing his soul in season 2), and that in Selfless she makes the same argument about Spike, contrasting it with Anya who did choose to become a vengeance demon, twice. This is probably the weakest part of the whole "vampire = inner nasty streak" metaphor. By not choosing to be vampires, and especially by Buffy voicing that, the metaphor gets seriously weakened - because, no free will ( ... )

boot_the_grime November 14 2011, 12:54:03 UTC

This is probably the weakest part of the whole "vampire = inner nasty streak" metaphor. By not choosing to be vampires, and especially by Buffy voicing that, the metaphor gets seriously weakened - because, no free will!Hm, I don't know if it's weakened - the whole point of vampirism is that everyone has this nasty streak inside that will come out when you're put in a certain situation ( ... )

norwie2010 November 14 2011, 21:30:08 UTC

They didn't choose to become evil, but that doesn't mean that they don't bear any responsibility for what they did afterwards.

That's what i mean. (And i guess we have the same opinion here?)

The whole "vampires are evil (and cannot help it!)" is not true. They can help it: see eg. Spike.

I guess what i wanted to express is that i think this point is worth repeating and reenforcing. Especially with the Anya<->Vampire comparison one could argue, that vampires just cannot help it: the MUST act evilly, and thus their responsibility is at least compromised. And Spike's story helps to dispel this.

boot_the_grime November 15 2011, 14:51:08 UTC

I think it's more of an issue of the type of evil ( ... )

rebcake November 15 2011, 07:15:49 UTC

While Part 2 is my favorite of all the season finales, Part 1 does have some great moments. I think you've probably noted them all. ;-)

I do have a nitpick though: both Liam and William consent to what Darla and Dru are offering when they become vampires, it's just that neither of them know to what they are agreeing. Consent: yes; informed consent: no. Darla also agrees, though we don't know about Dru. (If she consented, it was after she'd been driven mad, of course.) However, Buffy has no way of knowing if Angel/Liam chose to be a vampire or not. She knows some people do (Ford and friends).

I so miss the sing-songy thing that Spike does throughout S2. I guess once Dru leaves him, his taste for that type of nursery rhyme playfulness tapers right off. Sad.

boot_the_grime November 15 2011, 08:28:14 UTC

I think in this case she was referring to Angel losing his soul.

rpowell November 16 2011, 23:57:19 UTC

I don't have a very high opinion of this episode. It's not terrible. But I don't consider it to be the best from the series. I never understood the reason why Kendra had to appear in Sunnydale. After all, Buffy never ventured out of Los Angeles and later, Sunnydale, during her tenure as the Slayer during the series' run.

Two, the sight of Angel falling for 15 year-old Buffy made my stomach turn. And three, why didn't Xander tell the cops that Buffy wasn't responsible for the violence inside the school library?

boot_the_grime November 17 2011, 01:16:21 UTC

I never understood the reason why Kendra had to appear in Sunnydale. After all, Buffy never ventured out of Los Angeles and later, Sunnydale, during her tenure as the Slayer during the series' run.

Her Watcher told her that something "dark" was on the rise. Apparently apocalypses tend to happen in Sunnydale. If Kendra needed help to stop an apocalypse, Buffy would probably go there. The Buffyverse writers made the Beast story on AtS coincide with the First on BtVS, so that the Scoobies and the Fang Gang both had their own apocalypses to deal with.

And three, why didn't Xander tell the cops that Buffy wasn't responsible for the violence inside the school library?He probably eventually did. Buffy was later cleared. I don't know if Xander told them back then in Becoming (probably not), but I imagine they'd still either have wanted her at least for questioning, and she did resist arrest and punch out a couple of cops. She didn't have the time to deal with the police because she had an apocalypse to stop ( ... )