|
Rochallor posted:I was gonna say that UPN probably had less money to throw around than WB, but looking into it UPN won the bid by offering 2.3 million an episode version 1 million from the WB. Which is... weird, because I'd agree that the show looks noticeably worse in the last few seasons. Maybe some producer was embezzling some of it. The cast was probably getting more expensive that deep into the run, especially SMG and Alyson Hannigan in the early 2000s, since they were breaking out in mainstream stuff, too. I don't think Buffy looks worse in S6 + 7 though. Although come to think of it, maybe budget was a reason they spend so much of season 7 in Buffy's house just like they spend so much of season 5 of Angel in the W+H set. Plus, they were using CGI more often and it's not good.
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2024 22:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:34 |
|
|
Constantly using SMG as the face of the First instead of paying different actors,
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2024 22:59
|
|
|
Saving a ton of wardrobe money on having Spike go shirtless
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 01:48
|
|
|
Hulu has seasons 4 onward in 16:9 for some reason and I found my first goof. In the second part of the Buffy/Faith body swap two parter when the scoobies show up at the church where Adam's vampires are holding people hostage, Willow is visible and talking but Alyson Hannigan's mouth isn't moving. Clearly dubbed in later and wouldn't be visible if cropped for 4:3.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 02:48
|
|
|
Doctor Teeth posted:Hulu has seasons 4 onward in 16:9 for some reason and I found my first goof. In the second part of the Buffy/Faith body swap two parter when the scoobies show up at the church where Adam's vampires are holding people hostage, Willow is visible and talking but Alyson Hannigan's mouth isn't moving. Clearly dubbed in later and wouldn't be visible if cropped for 4:3. There is one of these in every widescreen episode. Like, every, single one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 04:19
|
|
|
Dark Willow is so deeply cringe. Fremdschämen for quip kids in the 90/00s emo phase.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 05:20
|
|
|
G-Spot Run posted:Dark Willow is so deeply cringe. Fremdschämen for quip kids in the 90/00s emo phase. Maybe but the flaying of Warren remains fuckin brutal
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 05:27
|
|
|
DrBouvenstein posted:Lorney Toons? "Stop calling me ... pastries."
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 05:46
|
|
|
Rochallor posted:It's been a couple years since I last watched Angel, but I remember being pretty impressed with how Angelus was used in S4. It helps that it's a card the show plays extremely rarely, even when Angelus is an idea that baked into the title character. It's what, 3-4 episodes in this season and that one in the first season where somebody gives Angel ecstasy, and that it outside of flashbacks, right? I would say it’s the opposite, Angelus is a character they used far too much, and each time he would be written worse. If I remember correctly season 4 was the one where everyone was warned ahead of time that he would say means things to them, and they still seemed surprised by it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2024 06:08
|
|
|
GoutPatrol posted:There is one of these in every widescreen episode. Like, every, single one. No kidding. I saw another one in the season 4 finale when Tara, Willow, Xander and Anya are in the ice cream truck in Xander's dream. Tara is talking but her mouth isn't moving. I could've found more but I haven't been actively looking. These are just the ones that stuck out so much I couldn't miss it. I forgot how weird the season 4 finale is.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 16:54
|
|
|
Doctor Teeth posted:No kidding. I saw another one in the season 4 finale when Tara, Willow, Xander and Anya are in the ice cream truck in Xander's dream. Tara is talking but her mouth isn't moving.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 18:02
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqurJiW9M3s&t=14s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kApY41_o60 Man, my lovely attention span is killing me. The reason why I never finished my Buffy re-watch is also why I'm tempted to put my Krakoa X-Men reading on hold to switch to going through the history of Daredevil comics. That and it just be so much simpler. I just pick a Daredevil issue and keep going straight ahead, instead of having to consult a separate tab's reading list like I'm doing with trying to catch up on X-men. Only exttra work I'd have to do is read the occasional mini or some Spiderman or Punisher stuff. I guess a bit more relevant here is I had no idea Joss Whedon was such an important figure for X-Men. Just hanging out in X-Men conversations for the past two months has given me a decent lay of the land in terms of opinions and the history of the franchise. Whedon's X-Men is held right there with Grant Morrison for ushering the comics out of a dark age. It's kinda funny because the only comics I ever knew from him before this were the much-ridiculed Buffy/Angel continuations.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 23:46
|
|
|
I lost my everloving MIND at that ending, with him on the roof. Just died laughing.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2024 01:38
|
|
|
Watching the second season of Daredevil you could really tell how TMNT was parody of Miller's Daredevil run.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2024 05:03
|
|
|
Saw the next episode of Angel, S1E17, Eternity, the one with the girl who laces Angel's drink with drugs to make him artificially happy, thus, turning him temporarily into Angelus. Couple of critiques: they play REAL fast and loose with the "vampire can't enter a building uninvited" rule, since he broke the window and dived into her home after a party went on he obviously wasn't privy to. Second, if they truly made Angel happy enough to be Angelus, why didn't they have to Orb of Thesula that soul back into him? I did appreciate how Cordy is an AWFUL actress when it's her job, but a great one when the chips are down and everything's riding on it. Cordy Dated Insult of the Episode: "He's just socially retarded."
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 11:18
|
|
|
Good Lord, I hate Where the Wild Things Are. Spike and Anya have great repartee, but jeez, I get tired of seeing Xander be cruel to Anya and Riley and Buffy boning. Even things that should be really amazing, like Giles getting to sing, are ruined by the fact that it's a song by a band I hate, Coldplay. The whole premise is stupid anyway: lots of repressed hormones created poltergeists that use all the sexin' energy of a superpowered couple to fuel shenanigans. The next episode was pretty cool. Return of Oz, making Riley have to decide where he stood on the whole, "Every demon = bad," idea. It makes it almost understandable then, where he takes this theme next season. It's just weird that the show blatantly says, "Not every demon is bad," then treats Anya and Spike like poo poo. Not to mention, if they're torturing Oz, you know they do worse with other demons. It's giving the ethics of Tuskegee, seriously, but I suppose that's a realistic portrayal of what would happen if spookies like that did go bump in the night and the government knew. On the plus side, we finally have confirmation on Tillow!  I love them together, at least this season and the next. Season 6 though... YIKES. Take the nicest relationship and throw a Molotov cocktail into the fray.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 08:37
|
|
|
Behind Blue Eyes is absolutely not a Coldplay song
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 11:54
|
|
|
Pinterest Mom posted:Behind Blue Eyes is absolutely not a Coldplay song Wasn't it a Limp Bizkit song?
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 11:59
|
|
|
Just like Smooth Criminal is an Alien Ant Farm song, sure.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 12:06
|
|
|
Pinterest Mom posted:Behind Blue Eyes is absolutely not a Coldplay song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frf0HepcB7w Nah it's a Dan Stevens song
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 12:27
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:Wasn't it a Limp Bizkit song? That's even worse. 
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 12:51
|
|
|
Behind Blue Eyes is The Who. Pete Townshend.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 01:25
|
|
|
I remember always scrunching my nose up and pretending to hiss and have fangs like the vampires in this show. Spike made me gay. Sire me.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2024 05:03
|
|
|
Finished Buffy. The finale suffers somewhat for being overstuffed, meaning that we don't get a very strong final confrontation with The First, and for being the blueprint for dozens of other finales since. But that's only because it "works", though the significance of the achievement has been somewhat dulled by the ages IMO. Unfortunately, this means that the only real surprise for my friend was Anya's death, which is tremendously effective and brutal. Everything else plays out pretty much as expected. I do think the runup to the finale is surprisingly effective, and is one of the most compelling arcs on the show. I'm impressed that they were still finding new angles to work on Buffy, the character, and Buffy, the show, even this far in. Even the ending sets up a new status quo that could have run for a long period of time IMO -- though this was definitely the right place to stop -- which I think speaks to the depth of the the characters and the strength of the writing.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2024 06:39
|
|
|
Speaking of finales, the Angel finale aired almost exactly 20 years ago (and the Buffy finale a year before that.) Twenty years of no Buffyverse content other than comics. Definitely shows you how different TV/movie production was back then, when you compare it to the "no original IP, keep the inter-connected universe going perpetually" train we're on now, for better or worse. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 13:32 on May 30, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 29, 2024 22:37
|
|
|
Watched the Serenity last night with mates (so we're done with both Firefly and Buffy now, and just have the last season and a third of Angel to go). I still think it's very impressive. It looks and functions as a film, rather than a TV show finale, and is incredibly well structured -- which is something that Mutant Enemy productions still do much better than pretty much anything else out there. In particular, the transitions between the first dozen or scenes are fantastic, as are the various ways Whedon contrives to demonstrate River's psychic abilities by breaking or interrupting typical cutting patterns using partial fades, fourth wall breaks, etc. The first act vehicular chase scene is also just spectacular, and it's so nice to see that it's obviously achieved largely with practical effects. It still looks really, really good. The third act sequence space battle, on the other hand, looks less good, but even that's full of inventive and characterful ideas. There's some stuff here that doesn't work -- the film's hacker character, Mister Universe, owns an entire planet!? Sure -- but it holds together pretty drat well. I also really love the villain, and it makes me sad that Firefly never really had Big Bads in the same way other Mutant Enemy shows did. The Operative's as moral as it's possible to be while working as an embodiment of the law, which he acknowledges is actually not remotely moral. Still, he's unfailingly polite, prepared, open and diplomatic, and seems genuinely insistent upon his ethics despite generating the energy of being completely loving untrustworthy. It'd have been great to see a character like this run his course over an entire season of television, as he slowly becomes more and more delapidated and desperate -- aesthetically monstrous in a way that mirrors his personal insistence on his immorality.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2024 08:24
|
|
|
Finished Angel S1E18-19, Five by Five and Sanctuary. I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it. Lindsay and Lilah are a treat though. Finished the last three episodes of S04 of Buffy. It is remarkable how all the needling Spike did in the Yoko Factor wasn't even necessary when the problems "resurface" S07. They never get resolved there very well either. Here, I like the solution because it defies what every other Slayer has been: alone. But they delve too deep, too up their own rear end about what makes a Slayer and make Buffy go it alone S07, therein defeating the purpose of this very lesson S04 and the advice Spike gives when saying what kills Slayers. Also, although the dream episode is super fun and gives a ton of hints for future seasons, I have a couple of problems with it: Xander is a gross perv (the whole dream sequence with Tara+Willow and sexy Buffy's Mom, YIKES) and the way Buffy was saying Sineya's dreads weren't appropriate work-place hair, WTF? Giles singing was NICE. The "play" in Willow's head was hilarious, with Cowboy Curtis/Riley and feminist speech giving 1920s Buffy. The cheese man was awesome too! Pan Dulce fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Jun 5, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2024 08:41
|
|
|
Yeah, I'm gonna say condemning a 19 year old boy for having a bit of a sexually charged energy in their dreams is a bit much.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 16:40
|
|
|
Absolutely, it's not like dreams are under a person control. Condemning a skeevy Joss Whedon for writing one is fair game thought.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 16:50
|
|
|
I will amend my statement a bit. While it's especially understandable for a 19 year old boy to have confusing sex dreams, I should be clear that condemning anyone for the content of their literal dreams is actually insane.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 16:56
|
|
|
Open Source Idiom posted:
Not to derail the Buffy thread, but I did love the operative and the hint that he was starting out on the same arc as Shepherd Book
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 17:08
|
|
|
DrBouvenstein posted:Speaking of finales, the Angel finale aired almost exactly 20 years ago (and the Buffy finale a year before that.) A continuation or reboot of BTVS seems to be one of those ever green ideas that seems to always have rumors about being in preproduction. Honestly, from what I gather if SMG wanted to play Buffy again and/or if Weadon being a creep had remained secret, it would have happened.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 17:17
|
|
|
Veryslightlymad posted:I will amend my statement a bit. While it's especially understandable for a 19 year old boy to have confusing sex dreams, I should be clear that condemning anyone for the content of their literal dreams is actually insane. Well now, that depends entirely on your perspective. If you define dreams by Freud's analysis of the ID being in charge, well, then everything gets kinda dicey. This quote gives a good simplification. "Because the id is unconcerned with propriety, the dream images generated would be shocking and disturbing to the conscious mind, so a “censor” steps in to translate the id’s wishes into symbols. By unlocking those symbols, the psychoanalyst and the patient can begin to unravel any buried impulses and conflicts." That suggests Xander has some sketch impulses. This is disappointing since he was just set as the heart of the group one episode earlier. It's just a show though. But it does display weird impulses for the creator of said lines/situations. Not to mention, oddly enough, I was watching with my husband, who's never seen Buffy, and scoffed at this, implying young men are the worst. To this, he replied, "Not all men. I didn't have dreams like that." Now, that might be pure bullshit, but I hope, considering I kinda buy into the ID argument, that not everybody dreams this way. side_burned posted:A continuation or reboot of BTVS seems to be one of those ever green ideas that seems to always have rumors about being in preproduction. Honestly, from what I gather if SMG wanted to play Buffy again and/or if Weadon being a creep had remained secret, it would have happened. Didn't they float around Zendaya being the main character of a Buffy show at one point? I didn't know if it was a reboot or a continuation though, it seemed like one of those clickbait titles. I hope it doesn't get made, in any case. Whedon would have to be involved, which, gently caress that, give that man no more chances, and it would probably turn out the same as the Charmed reboot, meaning terrible. Pan Dulce fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jun 5, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 19:03
|
|
|
THOUGHT CRIME! THOUGHT CRIME HAS BEEN COMITTED HERE!
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 19:12
|
|
|
Willow and Tara making out makes 100% sense for a teenage boy, while Joyce is one of those absurd dream scenarios that can happen to anyone. Restless is my all time favourite Buffy episode.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 19:12
|
|
|
Anyway I watched Players and lol at the writers just spending half the episode taking the piss out of the Evil Cordy plot, just before the big episode where she's actually super threatening. I really don't think the show knew what to do with Gunn half the time, but I like that he's apparently a huge fan of Samurai films and when he uses a bit of the old "I guess you don't remember me, the black guy, from that previous party I was definitely at and where I definitely talked to you, eh, eh" on the rich idiot whose party he's trying to sneak into. It's more indepedent characterisation than he's got in years.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 19:16
|
|
|
Lol no-one has responsibility for their impulses, only what they do about them
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 20:24
|
|
|
Pan Dulce posted:Finished Angel S1E18-19, Five by Five and Sanctuary. I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it. We're just skipping by this?? Love that two show, four episode arc
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 20:46
|
|
|
Chronicles posted:We're just skipping by this?? Love that two show, four episode arc It's got themes I don't particularly like. Faith was an awesome character in Buffy, up until she was a villain. Well, sort of. I liked the humanizing aspect Faith gave to the Mayor, it was kind of a darker Buffy/Giles situation. I don't know why I consider it gross in comparison though (ESPECIALLY when Faith calls him Daddy once). I dunno, I just don't like the "Daddy didn't love me, Mama didn't care," poor me schematic for women. Be bold. Be better. I also don't like how Buffy gets around Angel: she loses her whole dynamic of being a powerful woman and turns into this little girl searching for approval. It's icky. I also don't like that they hit each other. He's not Angelus at the moment. He loves her and she loves him, even as exes. Both were in the wrong. He sides with Faith, seeing a side of himself in her, but doesn't take the time to acknowledge that Faith had hosed around with Buffy's two serious relationships. He took a side and I don't particularly think it was the right one. Not to mention the shittiness of throwing Buffy moving on in her face, when just a couple of episodes he was falling for that actress who wanted to be a vampire. Oh, and saying LA was his turf, his rules, when on Thanksgiving he went to Sunnydale and the very next episode of Buffy, he's in Sunnydale again! It's breaking the rules set by himself: either avoid her and stick to your places or, I dunno, have a conversation instead of sneaking around and sulking? Most of Buffy's relationships are TOXIC, but I really don't like Bangel. They bring out the worst in each other.
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2024 21:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:34 |
|
|
Pan Dulce posted:Well now, that depends entirely on your perspective. If you define dreams by Freud's analysis of the ID being in charge, well, then everything gets kinda dicey. This quote gives a good simplification. "Because the id is unconcerned with propriety, the dream images generated would be shocking and disturbing to the conscious mind, so a “censor” steps in to translate the id’s wishes into symbols. By unlocking those symbols, the psychoanalyst and the patient can begin to unravel any buried impulses and conflicts." Why would I do this? It's 2024, and this poo poo was in Freud's own time and in Freud's own words considered dicey and up to interpretation. Freud had an absolutely massive ego and still considered dream interpretation to be very imprecise. I may as well consult the Tarot about Xander's impulses. But if you're playing by that logic, I don't think I can change your mind about it, so let's instead just dive deep. I think, in order to unpack Xander's dream, his actions therein, and thereby his motivations, we should examine what we know, both about the character's history, and the rest of the dream. To start with the character's history, and since we're talking about, specifically, some of the sexual themes in his dream, I think it's fair to start with Xander's romantic relationships, and see if there's a pattern there, and what it may say about what Xander is looking for. And as it turns out, there is definitely a pattern in Xander's relationship history that jumps out: Every single romantic relation Xander has had at this point has abused him. All of them. To wit: "Ms. French" - Not really a romantic entanglement, but it's worth noting that in addition to being a monster, she abused a position of authority for sexual purposes, drugged, and intended to rape and then murder him. (Or... I guess... simultaneously do those things.) "Ampata" - Tried to murder his best friend, and then him. Cordelia - Berated him continually. Hid their relationship out of shame. Told him to his face she was hiding their relationship out of shame, but he didn't have anything to be ashamed of, basically telling him he was worth less than her. At first dismissed his attempts to engage her in any way other than physically. (Women using Xander as an object and not a person is a bit of a running theme) Initially broke up with him in an incredibly insensitive way, because of her lovely friends, as opposed to anything he had done by this point. It should be noted that, at this point in the series, Cordelia is probably still his least toxic romantic partner.1 Willow - Attempted to brainwash him. In one of Willow's many, many acts of disregarding someone else's agency, Xander caught her attempting to end their affair by forcing him to not be attracted to her without his consent. Just break up if that's what you want. It is wrong to rob someone of their agency.2 Faith - Was uncomfortably aggressive with him when she took his virginity, then made it fairly obvious she was using him, afterward. The scene of her literally forcing him out of her hotel room, still undressed, would read very different had their genders been reversed, which is even more apparent when you stop and consider just how much stronger Faith is than Xander. Afterward, when Xander approached Faith in good, erm... faith, during her crisis, she sexually assaulted him, it's heavily implied she was willing to rape him, except she also tried to murder him. Anya - Is also uncomfortably aggressive with him. By this point, it has already been made explicit through previous episodes that Anya pressures Xander to have sex more than he is comfortable with – this is the initial cause of their fight in "Where the Wild Things Are". Given the way he lost his virginity, and to whom, not to mention his absolutely dire history beforehand, I think it's fair to say that he's probably got more than a few insecurities about the subject of sex. At some point, I should state that, when trying to communicate to Anya about what he feels sex should be, he states that "It's about expressing something", which is quite vague, but it's certainly far kinder than any woman he'd been romantically involved with has to date treated him. Now, let's discuss the other background issue: The rest of Xander's dream. Is there an underlying theme? Xander's dream appears to be about being stuck. As a child--or at least something less than an adult--behind others in achievements both sexual and aspirational, and in a cycle of abuse, unable to effectively communicate his own needs and feelings. He is constantly undermined by others in his own dream. The dream version of Apocalypse Now, which he later inhabits, is shown to be just dreadful, but something he "remembers getting better" (but apparently isn't sure about) Buffy questions if he's able to pee on his own. Joyce refers to him like a child. When he does find a place to pee, he's being stared at and scrutinized. Xander seems genuinely hurt when Spike is shown "training to be a watcher" with Giles and having a better relationship. He ruefully laments that he has other things going now, and needs to keep moving or "it" will catch up to him. And on, and on. He's terrified of the door out of his basement, and what is on the other side of it. What we're eventually shown is a viscerally uncomfortable glimpse of an abusive home life. Until this point in the series, we've, at best, had hints of how bad Xander's upbringing is, the most dramatic being him literally sleeping on his front lawn to escape his family's drunken Christmas fights. (Add "outing his most vulnerable secrets with the intent to hurt him" to Cordelia's abuse). But there's also been hints like, say, his own Mom not recognizing the sound of his voice, even when he refers to her as "Mom". Another piece of evidence is that Xander takes it as a given a kid would be beaten for losing a little league game–but is surprised that it wasn't a parent doing the beating.... And that's his home life. I've already shown that his romantic life has been continually abusive. What about his school life? Well, Willow indicates that Rodney Munson beat Xander every day for five years. Which sounds like it could probably be hyperbole, but I can assure you from personal experience, might not be far off His teachers, including Giles, are frequently dismissive and insulting toward him. So on basically every level, to the point where I would argue it's a core aspect of his character, Xander is a victim of abuse. And like many victims, knows that asking for help is verboten, rarely works anyway, and is frequently punished. In this light, his insistence on being involved himself in the team's conflicts makes a lot more sense. He instinctively does not trust that he will be helped. Further, it also explains things such as his response to Buffy "saving" him in "Halloween" or his lying to the police officer in "The Zeppo". As an aside, I'd argue that his dad being an abusive drunk is a major part of the reason why he hates Angel so much. Xander has intimate firsthand experience with someone whose personality can suddenly flip to violent. So. All that said. With all that we know about Xander, if we must interpret his dreams as revealing something crucial into his personality, is there an alternative reading? For the Willow/Tara scene, I would argue that there's something more than a little predatory about the way they act toward him. (And their mouths not reflecting what they're saying with their words and bodies) Taunting him with danger and experience, looking down on him. When he tells Anya "I don't have to," and she tells him to just go on, this could easily be read as him giving himself an out. Take Willow and Tara out of the scene entirely, and you have something that quite possibly has already happened, given the fight we'd been shown from "Where the Wild Things Are". Xander tells Anya he doesn't have to have sex, and she dismisses him without even looking at him. There's also a tinge of his feeling stunted. He didn't have a safe and nurturing childhood, and one of his big, sacred rituals of becoming an adult was exceptionally traumatic. He's as jealous of Willow's finding herself in this way as he is afraid of it. And given his history with women to this point, I find that a predatory vibe here–from them–makes much more sense than the other way around As for the scene with Joyce, there's some of that predatory vibe there, too. Where she tells him that she's learned about boys, where she knowingly remarks that she's heard "I should catch up" before.... but more than that, I think, to Xander, Joyce in his dream represents something he's never actually had in sex, (and arguably, anywhere else in his life to this point) safety and security. The series makes pretty clear that Xander sees Joyce as a safe older woman, perhaps even something of a surrogate mother figure3. His reaction in his dream to her coming onto him is one of surprise, followed by a moment of realization. That safety is something he would desire. It might even be something that he needs. Given everything we know about Xander from his life, and this brief glimpse of his subconscious, it only makes sense for this yearning for comfort to be driving this particular fantasy of his. It could only be more obvious if this were said explicitly in the script. Which brings me to my next point: This is said explicitly in the script. "I'm a conquistador" "You sure it isn't comfort?" "I'm a comfortador" This is a bit in the weeds here, coming down to etymology and meanings of words, but the root of Conquest, and Conquistador, but the former doesn't only mean subjugate by force and the latter doesn't mean one who does so. That's certainly not what is meant by Conquistador in the traditional sense. Both have their roots in the latin Conquistis, which is essentially the idea of seeking, searching, questing... when he agrees to Joyce's wry assertion that it might be comfort, he agrees, and makes the portmanteau "Comfortador". In this case "I am just seeking comfort" Later, when Snyder asks him if he's a Soldier (a much less ambiguous word for one who would act with force and violence) he once again asserts "I'm a Comfortador", accepting this desire for comfort and safety as part of his identity. Snyder, voicing what Xander fears is the truth about himself replies, "You're a whipping boy. Raised by mongrels and set on a sacrificial stone." And in this light, it all reads very, very sad. Xander suffers abuse invisibly from most of the people around him, frequently by them. (The insecurity that the fear demon latches onto in "Fear, Itself" is that he'll become invisible) His trying to make sense of his lifetime of maltreatment isn't skeevy, it's just kind of sad. So I'll reiterate what I said earlier: It's insane to hold someone accountable for their dreams. A person hopefully works toward bettering themself, and making some goddamn sense of the various poo poo they've lived through4. If there's any insight to be had from dreams at all, it's due to the brain repairing itself during its nightly disk defragmentation cycle, rearranging stored data in a way that, if we're lucky, makes more logical sense. ~~~~~~ ...some notes: 1: It's true–and also irrelevant–that Xander does some nasty things to Cordelia, too. Co-abuse is a thing that happens. One of the sadder parts of the two never appearing in each other's show is neither gets to see just how far they've both grown. I would argue they mature the most of any two characters in the series. 2: It's true–and relevant–that Xander attempted something similar to Cordelia. However, this differs for two major reasons: 1)Xander attempts to use his experience to indicate to Willow that it's a bad idea, and she ignores him. 2)Though the actual action is still wrong and highly immoral no matter how you slice it, Xander's motivations were easier to forgive than Willow's. Willow attempts to control Xander because she already knows she has poor willpower and magic is easier than self reflection. When Xander made the attempt on Cordelia, he essentially just wanted her to understand his pain. (And again, revenge is still pretty sick. I find Xander's actions in "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" to be understandable, but not justifiable) 3: This is supported in "The Body". The way Xander behaves is not the way a friend of a bereaved person behaves. It is the way a bereaved person behaves. It is safe to assume that Xander loved Joyce. 4: Xander also, by and large, succeeds staggeringly well by this metric when held up to most of the rest of the cast. Buffy can get a pass because she has an enormous burden to shoulder, and has suffered more trauma than anyone should ever have to, but there's a pretty tellingly wide gap between Willow, who lives in the master bedroom of her impoverished friend's house without paying rent, frequently breaks things (including Buffy's sister), and repeatedly and willfully violates the agency of others, and Xander who has a real-rear end job and apartment, fixes Buffy's house, more or less for free, whenever it's something he's capable of, and largely mellows the gently caress out by the end of the series.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2024 02:04
|
|