Re: ::BuffyWantsWillow:: Re: OT--"As You Were" discussion (DEM)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Well, my first attempt at responding to this went and crashed on me, so
let's hope for better this time?

--- In buffywantswillow@y..., "debvii" <debvii@y...> wrote:

>  
> > 
> > T
> > H
> > A
> > T
> > 
> > O
> > L
> > '
> > 
> > S
> > P
> > O
> > I
> > L
> > E
> > R
> > 
> > S
> > P
> > A
> > C
> > E
> 
> >Willow would NOT let the house go like that. 

>Even if we conveniently ignore that HS!Will must >have taken care of
herself for significant periods of >time while her parents were off at
wherever?we still >know that even when she was magick sick, Willow
>dragged her ass out of bed to try to make Dawn >breakfast before
school.  

Not to mention that we've seen Willow cooking to make up for her guilt
before (remember "Something Blue?"). She should be in full domestic
goddess mode to make up for the bad mojo.

There's absolutely no reason for Buffy to bring Doublecrap home for Dawn
every night, when Willow would want to take care of Dawn, and Dawn
herself is apparently very intersted in learning how to cook. Just
plain silly, to do the "poor Buffy" shtick.

And it's not the point, either! Buffy's life sucks (and she is driven
to hump Spike) because she can't reconnect emotionally to the people she
loves, not because she has to run her house. In fact, it would make
more sense for Willow to be the doting wife (as Cas felt she was in
"Dead Things") and for THAT to push her away, for Buffy to be driven to
the extreme because she doesn't feel comfortable with the normal.

(Of course, beyond all that, Buffy's problems stem from not having let
loose with her anger over the whole "ripped from heaven" thing, but God
knows if we'll ever get that properly addressed?)  

>Whatever happened to developing more than one >plotline at a time?
Instead of stupid speeches from >Mary Sues, why not quietly underscore
Willow's >progress by showing her returning to pre-sickness >levels of
competence? ?Here was the perfect op to >show another example of
recovery in another 
>realm of her life.  

Show, not tell? What a radical concept! Do you think the audience might
understand these things if they didn't have the PPOTW (Perfect Person of
the Week) to clue us in?

Although to be fair, I can understand why they needed Sam to tell us how
tough a time Riley had getting over Buffy. Asking Blucas to show
layers, like underlying lingering pain, is just begging for trouble :p

>Another S6 Writer's Dictate: If it's too hard to figure >out how to
make Buffy's home life suck while >Willow's living there, simply ignore
that Willow is >living there.
 
Yeah, this ep was almost as bad as if at the end of "Older and Far
Away", Drew Greenberg had made Willow run out of HER OWN DAMN HOME
without a second thought, just so he could have a final tableau of Buffy
Not Abandoning Dawn.

Imagine how horrible it would have been if Greenberg had made Willow
sprint out, without a backward glance at the child she too has taken on
parental responsibilities for. Imagine if Greenberg completely forgot
that, counting the summer, Willow has been Dawn's parent for longer than
Buffy has. Imagine if Greenberg ignored the fact that Willow was
probably taking on the majority of the household burden, what with Buffy
being post-traumatic and having her slayer duties, and neglected to show
Willow being guilt-ridden over what had just happened because she'd been
ignoring Dawn's needs. Imagine if Greenberg had made Willow go
cavorting on the grass, with nary a thought about the girl she loves,
lives with, and has accepted responsibity for, despite having just heard
Halfrek lecture her on being too self-involved to notice Dawn's pain.
Imagine if Greenberg had painted Willow as a callow twit who doesn't
fret that Dawn has now (inadvertantly) dabbled in the black arts, and
isn't worried about Dawn's repeating Willow's own mistakes, or blaming
herself for having given Dawn spellbooks.

Imagine if the girl who once bemoaned "I bet there were circumstances!
We've probably been so caught up in our own petty lives that we missed
the circumstances! We're bad friends!" didn't show a quiver of concern
now that Dawn has been revealed as a screaming-for-attention
kleptomaniac. What a horrible perversion of character that would have
been, just so Greenberg could artificially create a Buffy/Dawn moment.

Well, thank Joss that Greenberg didn't do that. Oh, wait? :(

Well, I guess Willow was completely ignored there because Dawn doesn't
consider anyone but Buffy to be her surrogate parent. Which of course
explains why Dawn was so angry about Riley having left her?

Going OT for a moment, good to see Spike waiting for Buffy by going into
her house and having a nice chat with Dawn. Oh, wait, that didn't
happen, either. He still hasn't said a single word to her since he
found out Buffy was alive. Gee, Spike really loves the "little bit",
his protecting her had nothing to do with Buffy, at all. (Well, Spike
himself said he was doing it for Buffy's sake, in both "Intervention"
and "The Gift", but why listen to him?)

>Ya know, I just can't stand this incompetent and >ineffectual Buffy of
S6. I can't help but think that >there had to have been a better way of 
>showing Buffy struggling or whatnot. The way >they've done it has
looked more like beating up on >Buffy than commiserating with her.  

I was replying to Kirayoshi's post on "Doppelgangland", and I went to
check the ep. Then I stayed with it up to where Buffy, Giles and Xander
all think Willow has been vamped and are mourning her.

The Buffy in that scene is numb, devastated, griefstricken,
guilt-ridden, defeated. She doesn't look at all like what we've seen
this year--I actually had trouble believing this was the same
character.

BTW, ditto for Xander, who's been neutered since they took away his
anger these past two years. Aside from a few moments over Joyce's
death, the only time he's been able to show his fire is by being
occasionally pissy with Spike. But that's just comedy filler, nothing
like the righteous rage he had over Angel.

Say, do you think there's a chance in hell, that with the wedding next
week, and Xander's awful family a focus, that we might actually get a
serious treatment on the "Xander appears to have been an abused child"
issues that have been completely forgotten since "Forever"? Naah, me
neither.

But it's Buffy who's the most out of character. When her world was
completely ruined in "Becoming", moved to LA, got a better job than she
has now, maintained a not-inexpensive apartment. A heartbroken,
messed-up Buffy should be a cold, shut-down, focused, scary Slayer-bitch
on wheels, as in "When She Was Bad" (and also parts of "Innocence",
"Anne", "The Prom", "Into the Woods", and "Forever"), not this pathetic
moppet. That's how Buffy copes with emotions she doesn't want to cope
with.

It would be far more in character if Buffy was raping Spike, rather than
(almost) the reverse. "You wanted me, William? Well, you got me. Now
stop whining about your emotions and take it like a vampire!" David
Fury was somewhere in the neighborhood of this with "Gone", but that
vanished right away.

If it's such a big trauma, he shouldn't have to play mind games on
her--she should be messed up enough on her own account. 

Thanks again, DEM, for your thought-provoking commentary.

Dan