OT: "All the Way" thoughts--SPOILERS!! and future thoughts

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

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Okay, so minimal Spike-bashing in this one. As I say, it's just a
reaction to his being elevated at Willow's expense and the heavy-handed
linkage between the two storylines. I mean, last year, I had no real
problems with the Spike and Buffy getting slightly closer plot. Of
course, a lot of that is because they're getting so much closer this
year. And I didn't support the 'ship, as I feel it diminishes Buffy's
history with Angel and therefore insults her intelligence. But it
wasn't the sore spot that it's been this year. And the CA Moore piece
on "vampires have souls, too," set me off, since Spike's soullessness is
his distinguishing characteristic. Which does make for some interesting
bits, I'll admit. I particularly liked his late Season 4 act--gladly
wanting to sell the gang out, first to Faith and then to Adam--which I
felt showed how our guys' expectations that Spike would react similarly
to their shared experiences came back to bite them, figuratively, at
least.

Spike's character insight also seemed to stem from his soulless
nature--since he had no desire to see the best in people, no emotional
attachment to them, he could see the truth. (To an extent, he replaced
Cordelia in this role.) Obviously, Season 5-6 Spike is different
creature.

Anyhow, onto the ep, and random thoughts.

Hey, Tara got a funny line! (To say nothing of the fact that UPN is
cool with the lesbian humor.) Wonder if Willow put a spell on her to
give her a personality?

Hey, I never said no Tara-bashing <eg>

Really, one of the reasons I never warmed up to Tara was that the
writers never give her good lines. She doesn't have to be Xander,
cracking jokes, she can just, as in this ep, react in character but say
it in an interesting way. So often, her part of the story is kind of
dead space--halting exposition, words of caution that make Giles's
worst lines seem rapier-like, supporting Willow. This is a start.  

Got to agree with crsk that they seem to be getting on Willow, no matter
what magic she uses. Little decorations to fix up an impromptu party
are now wrong, but also big spells to accomplish important tasks like
reviving Buffy are wrong. It seems a contradiction--you're not
supposed to access great power (THAT was what Giles objected to in
"Flooded", not her motives or her result), but you're also not supposed
to use magic for trivial things. And as Inell put it in her wonderful
fic, "Two Sides of the Coin", it's insulting that everybody worries
about what she's doing--of course there are risks, like in
vampire-slaying, but people don't tell Buffy to stay inside. This is
Willow's contribution to the cause and Giles/Tara are acting like she's
wrong to want to help.

During the time it's taken me to write this whole thing, Wlfgrrl's post
came in (glad to have you joining in here!), and I agree that Tara's
admiration for "Fiat Lux" makes her carping now ring hollow. I'll add
another to the list--the floating dance at the end of "Family". W/T
have always had an appreciation for the beauty of magic, now Tara wants
to be utilitarian.

Of course, Willow's also making some bad choices, but these happen AFTER
Giles and Tara pick fights with her. Sure, dimension-shifting the crowd
at the Bronze is a ridiculous idea--and an example of the poor writing
that has kept this arc from having a consistent build and makes it so
jarring when they do a moment like this. I mean, why wouldn't Willow do
the locator spell she talks about in "Flooded" rather than go to such an
extreme? A locator spell that, BTW, would help them find Dawn, not just
15-year-old girls in general. Because this way the audience can gasp
"oooh, evil!", that's why.

And wouldn't W/T have set up one of those "firefly" things for Dawn, who
was in their charge all summer?

Personally, I found the silencing spell to be unnecessary magic. What
happened to Willow's telepathy, which we haven't seen since
"Bargaining"?

Wasn't it just great to see The Bronze again? Not since "Family",
right? Kind of a little upset that Willow dissed it as a high school
hangout, though--I know the kids were in fact high schoolers when they
hung out there, but I still have an emotional connection to the place.

Dawn is kind of dumb, since the one rule of Sunnydale is to never date
anyone you haven't seen in the sunlight.

Rather a lame Act 2 ending with the kiss. Should have ended Act 1 with
the surprise turn on the red-herring toymaker NOT being the villain, but
have him just meet a mysterious end, and keep the actual, specific,
"Zack & Justin are vampires" revelation for here.

I was really set to hate the toymaker as the villain, so I'm glad that
was just a fake-out.

I wish they'd explain WHY baddies don't prowl on Halloween, rather than
just have Spike gripe about the "rules". Spike's a stickler for rules
now? What about "Hallowe'en"? Okay, this could turn into
Spike-bashing, moving on.

What happened to Dawn's wanting to learn magic? Shouldn't that be
factoring into all this Magic is Bad for You stuff?

Jim (Kirayoshi), love your theory about the broken urn. And perhaps this
is why she misses "heaven"--not because being alive is awful, but
because she left a part of herself behind and it's natural to crave
completeness. If some of Buffy's words belie this theory, I could argue
that she's gone into denial about missing what she's missing, because
she can't deal with the thought of being fractured in that way.

I wouldn't necessarily say that EmptyBuffy is with Spike just because
she feels unworthy of the Scoobs, though. More like since she never had
an emotional connection to him, she doesn't feel the same sense of loss
(and, yes, guilt) that she does around Willow, Xander, Giles and Dawn,
whom she can't love the way she knows she should be able to. Spike fans
go on about how he can be her friend because he doesn't burden her with
expectations like the others do, but that's the wrong way around--she
has no expectations of her interactions with him and doesn't feel like
she's acting any differently, whereas she's incapable of being her old
self with people she loved.

This also explains the "only person I can stand to be around" line from
"Life Serial", which people felt was offensive to Giles and Dawn, who
had nothing to do with her resurrection. Buffy isn't pulling away from
people because she blames them, she just needs a stranger who won't miss
the parts that aren't there right now.

And of course, since he's soulless and incapable of love (I said
"minimal" Spike-bashing, not none), she doesn't feel inferior to him, as
she does to the others. And she also resents being resurrected, so
inferiority+resentment=emotional distance.

Actually, Buffy's seemed less resentful the last two weeks. In "Life
Serial" she was upset that her life lacked focus, not that she WAS
alive. And this week she was ill at ease, but really didn't seem that
different from previous periods of loneliness. Which I'm glad to see,
but now it'll be odd if they end up having Buffy give Willow what-for in
the big confrontation down the road--if being yanked out of wherever
was that bad, Buffy should still be showing it. Again, the build on the
arcs seems askew. 

She really shouldn't resent Willow any more though. Buffy saved Dawn's
life this ep--so if Willow hadn't done the resurrection, Dawn would be
a vampire, which was probably Buffy's biggest nightmare. Unless
EmptyBuffy doesn't care about saving Dawn, but then why did she do it?

Willow's casting the forget spell on Tara was badness, of course, but at
least they wrote her in character voice this time. No one is going to
be theorizing she's gone schizo, like they were after she threatened
Giles two eps past.

So, as poorly as the arc is being done, it'll be okay if they make it an
addiction storyline. "Willow has a problem" is a lot better than
"Willow IS a problem", which I feared they were doing to justify
Buffy/Spike as a response. But if Jim's right and Buffy/Spike is
symptom of Buffy's own, soon-to-be-fixed, problems, then that's
surviveable. Hey, Sammy Koala, you were right--Buffy/Spike will end
when she gets her sanity (or rather the rest of her soul) back. At
least I hope so.

I still want Dru to show up, shake loose the chip, and make Spike the
fiend he truly is, again. 

And the Buffy/Willow relationship should be fixable, since Buffy has to
take the blame for Willow's growing interest in magic as a way to
contribute, which began when Buffy ran away to LA after Season 2 and the 
Scoobs had to take over the slaying. Willow lost her protector and her
best friend and she was also mourning Jenny (of the kids, she was the
one who missed her most) and Angel (again, she was closer to him than
anyone not named Buffy) and she thought she had failed Buffy and Angel
(and Jenny, in memoriam, too) because the spell didn't work. (Buffy
doesn't clear that up until "Faith, Hope, and Trick".) And she was
having her first dating experience, complete with werewolf issues, and
she couldn't talk to her parents about it--all in all, it was a bad
summer, as her speech to Buffy in "Dead Man's Party" points out.

So she made herself strong and self-reliant and worked on being a better
witch so she wouldn't let her friends down again. For all we know, she
blamed herself for Buffy leaving, since if Angel had been cured Buffy
wouldn't have run off. (I don't really remember "Anne"--perhaps that
was addressed there? I can find out when FX airs it on Monday) And she
became a more important member of the team--she's hurt when Buffy won't
take her along in "Bad Girls"--to the point where she's necessary, as
in "Choices" where Wesley makes the gang realize they have to have her
there, to deal with the mystical safeguards. She stopped seeing herself
as inferior to her best friend/love object (the "I'm not a sidekick"
speech in "Fear, Itself") and worked to improve herself. Possibly this
was part of the attraction to Tara, who had the wiccan history
background Willow lacked. And this has continued--it's never been a
power trip per se, because the more she can learn the more she can help.
But she is at a power level now where her emotions can lead her astray.
And Buffy is essentially to blame for this because she abandoned her
and, in effect, lied to her. So hopefully Buffy will be more able to
forgive.

As to Wlfgrrl's "she's got Osiris in her" theory, it sounds good, but I
don't think they'd go back to gods so soon after Glory. Joss likes
variety (as seen next week--bad pun).

As to blind trust in Joss, yes he's been doing a power
growth/personality growth arc for Willow for years, but I don't think
this was all preplanned. He doesn't have everything done years in
advance--I'm quite certain Riley was meant as a longer-term male lead,
but they decided to cut their losses. This arc on Willow, despite its
long roots, could have been (and could still be) subverted to serve as a
cautionary tale and strengthen Spike's arc, as we've been fretting about
for a while. Just cause Joss has an idea, that doesn't mean it's a good
one (I did mention Riley, right?).

And I still think there's more to be mined in that speech about love
that The Guide gives Buffy in "Intervention". I really liked James's
idea, but that should be a separate letter (just a little, preview,
shout-out to you, James).

I also would not fret so much if the eps were actually good, story arcs
aside. But this has to be the worst start to a season. "Bargaining 1"
had character stuff, but was just a long set-up to "Bargaining 2", which
had the opposite problem, wall-to-wall violence and all it accomplished
was to return Buffy, which we knew would happen, anyway. Basically,
that was "Anne" and I'm still waiting for the "Dead Man's Party", where
the issues start getting explored. "After Life" was a lot of waiting
through a diversionary monster plot so Jane could hit us with the big
surprise at the end, "Flooded" was the worst ep ever, mixing lame comedy
with ham-handed execution of the Evil Willow arc, and "Life Serial" was
kind of fun, but definitely minor. And the four acts all being separate
parts (Buffy goes to school, to construction, to the Box, on a date with
Spike) made it choppy, no real build. This last one had minor villains,
an exceptionally stupid Dawn, more less-than-stellar handling of the
Willow arc, and bad pacing. I haven't had the opportunity to put these
in the digital storage on my Ultimate TV, since UPN won't be on DirecTV
until January, but none of these would be keepers anyhow. (I'll make
proper tapes when I can get the reruns, but that's not like the ones I
keep in digital storage, at my fingertips).

However, "Billy", this week's Angel ep, was the real stuff.

Some more thoughts on the future, but these involve minor casting
spoilers and a rumor, sooo?

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Amber Tamblyn will return as Janice, so Dawn/Janice 'shippers start your
engines! And Dawn is old enough to be shipped--at 15, Buffy was the
Slayer and Angel was admiring her from afar. Besides, femslash=no
pregnancy worries.

I'd still prefer to put her with Kirsty (from "The Body", the slightly
bitchy blonde), myself.

Willow might actually get straightened out before we have to suffer
through the whole year. I read (can't recall where) that her computer
expertise will play a larger role in this year's stories. If she
confronts her spell-a-holic nature and cuts down or gives up the magic,
computing would be a way for her to contribute, which would mean she'd
be a good guy again. This would also justify that iBook that Perri
Smith of the SunS has been so fixated on.

Which doesn't mean they're out of spellcasters, even if Tara and Giles
leave. TV Guide Online says Amy's coming back, so maybe she takes over
the mojo.

Of course, they said she was coming back last year, too? 

Hey, wouldn't it be cool if this Season was about B/W giving up things
that were bad for them--Willow drops magic (and her witchy gf) and
Buffy gets over her bad boy/dead boy fetish, dumping Spike good and
hard. As Jim said before, Buffy needs the empowering feeling of dumping
a man, for once.

Best,

Dan