OT--Where is the Love? --SPOILERS!!

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Six extremely depressed hours after "Flooded" aired?

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You know, this whole thing just sickens me. Not only are all my fears
being confirmed, not only is the show apparently heading to permanently
killing my interest in it (and sadly, said interest seems to occupy a
disproportionate part of my life) but now we have two new horrors:

1) They are doing this "Evil Willow/Buffy Loves Spike" plot with all
the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and it's just bad television, character
implications and my own personal enjoyment aside.

2) No one seems to care. General posting sites like The Bronzeshelter
and ~Buffy~ are full of "yea, Spike!" and "Way to go, Giles! Yes, yell
at Willow!". Where the hell are the protests, the "We love Willow,
don't do this to her!" posts? I'm not even talking 'ship here,
people--I don't see any support for the character, any opposition to
the total perversion of Buffy's best friend, just so they'll have an
excuse to stick her with Spike.

Buffy dates a vampire, Gee, that'll be original.

Someone Buffy loves betrays her. Also REAL new. And with Angel,
darkness was a part of his character, something Buffy always feared;
the whole Angelus arc was saying sometimes love can't change people,
they're the people they are no matter how much we care for them.

Willow of course has none of that in her. Not to beat a dead horse, but
she's supposed to be the representative of essential humanity--

Enjoining spell ("Primeval"): Buffy is the Hand (strength), Xander the
Heart (courage), Giles the MInd (intellect)?and Willow is the spirit
(essential humanity)

--turn that evil and there's no point to the show.

Also it kills the earlier eps: not gonna have a lot of fun seeing the
Willow we know and love if we know that at the end of the day she turns
irredeemably evil and Buffy has to kill her (not that that's happening,
but the way this is going, look out!).

Random thoughts: I think it's time to retire Doug Petrie (yes, I know
Espenson is also to blame for "Flooded", but I think she just did the
comedy scenes--which were pretty lame on their own). "The Weight of
the World" was nothing special, but this was drek. Okay comedy with
Buffy, lame comedy with the Nerd Squad (and since when are Warren and
Jonathan evil? and isn't "Buffy" supposed to be an inclusive show, not
mocking nerds and such? what's next, blaming Willow's evil on her
lesbianism?). And then the big relationship scenes. 

The Giles and Buffy stuff was fine, but I still can't get over him
yelling at Willow and insulting her like that. What happened to
something like "Willow, I'm concerned" or "We have to be very careful",
instead of "You're a very stupid girl." and "You arrogant, rank,
amateur!!", huh??

And then that cheap blatant, "Oh, look, I'm evil" line, where Willow
actually threatens Giles. Hey, maybe next week they can have her
torture puppies while twirling her mustache and cackling evilly. I know
there's such a thing as foreshadowing, but there's also such a thing as
a gradual build--and that was the most hamfisted crap I've seen in a
long time on this show.

Well, unless you count that we immediately cut to Buffy and Spike,
outdoors, sitting in a tree, K-i-s-s-i-n-g. Well, not quite, but
practically. Real subtle way for Petrie (or Espenson) to make the point
"Willow bad, Spike good."

Also had to worry about Spike's comment on "thinning the herd" which
seems to be Joss's way of saying he's gonna dump some actors. I still
suppose it'll be Tara, though. They say Joss likes to give us what we
want in ways we don't want it. This would be another case: I'd much
rather have Tara at her simpering worst than have her maimed/killed by
Evil Willow.

It's also weird they think the cast is too big, as it's smaller (6
regulars, 2 recurring) than it's been, except for Season 1 (5 regulars,
2 recurring). Was just looking at "Graduation Day, Part 1" today, and
we've got 7 regulars (Buffy, Xander, Willow, Cordy, Angel, Oz, Giles)
and 2 long-term recurring (Joyce, Snyder) and 2 season-arc recurring
(Faith, Wesley) and Anya, who's just started recurring and is building
towards regular status, and also guest spots by Harmony and Percy, with
Larry, Devon and Jonathan in part 2.

Going back to Giles ripping Willow a new one, shouldn't the man without
an Eyghon tattoo cast the first stone? As a once-devout black arts
practitioner, you'd think he'd go a little easier on someone who was at
least trying to do good.

And it's ridiculous that he rips Willow for trying something dangerous
to save a friend. EXCUSE ME, but the whole show is about how
individuals are important, you help your friends and deal with the
consequences later. Giles might remember how he was willing to take a
chance on the Master rising, just as long as he stopped Buffy from dying
like the prophecy said ("Prophecy Girl"--and Xander has the same
sentiments). Or he could recall how Buffy let Angelus get away (and
kill more people and nearly destroy the world) because she was saving
his sorry Watcher ass ("Passion"). Or how Buffy let the Mayor have the
vital Box of Gavrok to save Willow ("Choices"). Or how Buffy was
willing to risk the Mayor's Ascension by giving Angel her blood to live
("Graduation Day, Part 2"). Or the gang's risky and probably foolish
rescues of Riley and Oz from the Initiative ("Goodbye, Iowa" and "New
Moon Rising"). Or Buffy saying she'd let the world end rather than kill
Dawn ("The Gift"). Yeah, Willow was waaaaaay over the line on this,
surrrrrrre.

I guess they'll just fall back on "power corrupts" and claim that since
Giles has worried about Willow's magic going all the way back to
"Becoming, Part 1", this means they had this long-planned as a character
arc, rather than a cheap device to substitute for an original Big Bad
and a way to shove Buffy at BleachBoy. Never mind that Giles is
naturally cautious, I suppose we're meant to believe that Willow
restoring Angel's soul ("Becoming, Part 2") and defeating Adam
("Primeval") and Glory ("The Gift"--others did much of the work, but it
wouldn't have happened without Will) are now bad things, the good
intentions that led Willow into hell. Well, screw you, Joss.

Or maybe he'll mutter something about her being a tragic hero. Well,
Angel was a weak-willed creature of his passions (that's why he has to
be celibate to achieve shanshu/redemption)--what's Willow's flaw?
Being nice? A willingness to do right? About the only thing that could
qualify would be a secret love for Buffy, but I didn't know the show was
now being written by the anti-gay religious fringe. 

Once more, I'm quite distressed by how quickly this plot is being moved.
It's like they have to turn her evil for the November sweeps. I guess
we should keep an eye on the musical ep (in three weeks), since Joss is
writing it.

Frankly, if I don't see anything to give me hope by then, I may bail on
the show. There's no point to good people being made into convenient
villains for the sake of some cheap B/S smooching. And if necessary,
I'd rather just see Willow as she is, not what they're making her into.

Just out of curiosity, how are these geniuses planning on snapping Buffy
out of her "life is hell" depression? I can't think sex with Spike is
the cure for Hell on Earth. And if she just snaps out of it that blows
the whole point. An epiphany on the necessity of saving people would
reconnect her to her job, not to life itself. I just can't see any
reason for her to want to live unless she somehow discovers that death
wasn't all she remembers it as--and I can't think of a decent way to
show the afterlife that we'd have to see for that story.

I should also say that although Xander is a somewhat darker character
than Willow, doing this to him would be just as bad. The show is "Buffy
the Vampire Slayer", with the "Buffy" part keeping her from turning into
a mindless killing machine, like Faith on her bad days. And what keeps
Buffy Buffy has always been her friends, the real Chosen Two, Willow and
Xander.

So that's it. Who knows, in a month that could really be it. <<tries
not to imagine he hears a big cheer from the crowd at the thought of him
going away>>

And, needless to say, the fic muse is in the hospital, in critical
condition. I mean, what's the point of writing fic based on the
concepts of friendship and love when the character I consider the basic
embodiment of those aspects of the Buffyverse is now everyone's whipping
post?

Thoroughly bummed,

Dan

PS--one good line in the ep. When Buffy speculates on the benefits of
burning down the house and adds "Fire pretty", I laughed and called out
"No! That's 'Fire bad, TREE pretty'!"

"It's not about winning; it's about what's at stake."--Angel, putting
the priority on his friend, Cordelia (how EVIL of him, right, Giles?)
("That Vision-Thing").

"It's a good fight and I want in."--Willow, apparently damning herself
to hell ("Choices").

"Do you want me to wag my finger at you and tell you, you acted rashly?
You did, and I can. But?you couldn't have known what would happen.
The coming months are going to be very hard--I suspect on all of us.
But if you're looking for guilt, Buffy, I'm not your man. All you will
have from me is my support?and my respect."--Giles, giving Buffy a
somewhat nicer reprimand than "You're a very stupid girl."
("Innocence").