Being a Fan: AtS Edition

[gabrielleabelle]

Ah, AtS is always an oversight for me. In my just-posted poll on being a fan, I asked about BtVS but not AtS. Here I ask about AtS.

Let me copy&paste the directions from the previous poll (with appropriate AtS substitutions):

So here's the question on this one: As a whole, did you like the narrative of AtS? Starting from the first moments of City

Comments

[2maggie2]

Close call for me. But I'll go with my best read -- it's an epic tragedy. Angel never manages to escape himself. Everyone in his circle dies. His own last act refuses the lessons he tried to learn but never could really own and represents the complete failure/inversion of his every asperation. The heroic trappings are deeply ironic. The real weaknesses of the show -- most notably the lack of integrity to the stories of all the other characters is just part of the tragedy. Angel is the classic tragic figure about whom the world revolves, and his own failure destroys everyone. I'm not sure they intended that -- but it's as close to classic tragedy as I've seen in modern culture, so yay.

[menomegirl]

What she said.

:)

[ceciliaj]

You've read the epic "World Without Love" essay, right? here.

[2maggie2]

Nope -- but thanks for the tip! Off to read...

[deird1]

I love just about everything about AtS - except the narrative.

I love the characters, the humour, lots of the episodes, the fights, the special effects, and quite a lot of the storylines. But narrative? No.

[gabrielleabelle]

Heh. I can't imagine that's an unpopular opinion. I thought BtVS would have people with similar sentiments given discussions I'd seen around fandom, but I suppose not. Very strange.

[peroxidepirate]

I believe I'm still in approximately 99.5% agreement with you about AtS.

Er... I checked no. Some good episodes, some good stories, but as a whole, I'm not a fan. Mostly due to the utter lack of feminism.

[gabrielleabelle]

Yep. There are some fantastic moments. And I still like the Jasmine arc at the end of S4 (You know, once Gina Torres shows up). And I'm partial to S2, overall. But on the whole? Not a big fan.

[diamondtook862]

Thank you! I was seriously warned off the Jasmine arc, but I liked it and I loved her. I hate hate hate the retcon they threw in with it (Nobody messes with Darla's sacrifice - and they should have just not done Cordy/Connor in the first place, and I refuse to speak on Cordy never being Cordy again...), but I enjoyed the season other than that explanation.

[gabrielleabelle]

Heh. Well, the poll's evening out now. :)

[duh_i_read]

There are storylines and episodes and characters I seriously love in AtS, but the narrative as far as i've seen (midway through season 5 BTW), is far too thrown together at points, way too many ass-pulls to explain things and so much character erosion over time.

Not to mention all the times I noticed the writers seemed liked they didn't know what to do with half the supporting cast at any given time.

Oh, and yeah, gender!fail all around.

[gabrielleabelle]

But you have a Lilah icon and that's just awesome. :)