How's Mark Doing?

[eilowyn]

So I've been to busy to follow Mark as he watches season 3 of Buffy. To those of you who do follow him, how's he doing? Is the Buffy/Angel stuff grating on him to (it's my biggest complaint about season 3 - there are some flawless episodes there, but the season long arc is ruined by Buffy and Angel's nine-month long breakup. One that will

Comments

[gillo]

Mark was, on the whole, glad to see Angel go, as he was a bit tired of the whole Bangel thing.

I still find him a bit superficial, but I am enjoying many of the coded comments.

Oh, and he's now doing both Buffyverse shows, with crossovers on the same day.
And he hopes Joyce won't get an aneurysm from buying Buffy's books. :-(

[eilowyn]

Sounds like he's getting where he's going, and from what I have read hw does make the episodes all about himself.

[angearia]

I've noticed I have two criteria for anyone blogging about their Buffy watch that determines whether or not they watched the show right: (1) Does the Buffy and Angel-ness of season 3 get obnoxious and (2) does the kiss in EoD/Chosen seem like cheap fanservice. If you answered yes to both you get my seal of approval. If not, get the fuck away from me and go back to reading Twilight.Or there's a few people who feel the Buffy/Angel End of Days/Chosen scene deliberately uses soft lighting to romanticize Angel's return to the show, displaying the relationship through an air of nostalgia and decidedly lacking in reality. And then transitioning out into the dark where Buffy sends him away, essentially gives him a kiss-off, and goes back to Spike. (Film 101 of lighting choices ~illuminating~ the narrative

[ever_neutral]

PREACH

[norwie2010]

SO, in a way season 8/issue 33 is that scene blown up to the big screen. (err, big panel...)

And the consequences are - horrible. You can only truly grow up when revisiting ("working" through, one could say) the "softly lit fiction that has no power to hurt you" (and it is only consequent that the last remaining parental figure dies right away at this threshold - you're an adult yourself, now).

Back to your main point: I actually agree and i don't think that scene is jarring. Angel comes blazing into town to bring the solution - only to leave in his CEO style limousine humbled.

(And he's knocked out during the climax of the Buffy<->Caleb fight. Angel: Giles much?! ;-)

In between the harsh fight (of all of season 7), this softly lit scene bellows "romanticism" - when the whole narrative hinges on "shed your romanticism!"

Buffy leaving hellmouths, apocalypses, the world bigger than life (and a vampire lover) behind.

[angearia]

*nods*

That's an idea that local-max and I have been discussing for quite a while now. That Season 8 delves into the symbolism of "Chosen" in a big way when it comes to exploring Buffy/Angel. The difference between "Chosen" and 8.33 is that Buffy accepts Angel, under far worse circumstances, because she's not at a point where things are starting to make sense (lol cookie dough, but that's what it means for her), where as at 8.33 she's totally lost and despairing. She can reject nostalgia when she's strong, but when she's weak, when she's been beaten and degraded and demoralized the entire season? Boom.

the whole narrative hinges on "shed your romanticism!"

Buffy leaving hellmouths, apocalypses, the world bigger than life (and a vampire lover) behind.

WORD

[slaymesoftly]

Not sure who/what AV is, but I hope you sent them a (perhaps less profane) version of this rant. I think it is particularly important that all these media types be aware that the Bangels are, in fact, a vocal minority and that the rest of us didn't quite see the show the same way they did.

[eilowyn]

The A.V. Club is the pop culture department of The Onion News Network. They're a pretty respected source for pop culture news. And what is this? One letter to Entertainment Weekly and I'm now the letter writer of the fandom?!

[ghostyouknow27]

Is the Twilight thing from an interview or some such? Because B/A is far, far and away >>>>>> than Edward/Bella, and Jacob has nothing in common with Spike, aside from a motorcycle.

[ghostyouknow27]

This is the first thing I found searching for "Stephanie Meyer Buffy fan

[barbs_suh_list]

I think you may be borrowing hammers here...