Re: Re: My review of "Hell's Bells"-OOPS!!

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

CDS,

Nearly forgot

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>Interesting point about the "best friend forever" thing; didn't even
think twice about it.

Yeah, no one else seems to have caught it, either. Which shocks me,
because I practically fell out of the chair. It seemed so clearly to be
the PTB Making A Statement, because it was the final line of the "Anya,
delirious bride, describing her joy" scene--and because Anya never
calls Xander her best friend, it seemed to be there to introduce the
concept, to define Love. (Plus the later description of love as "safe
and warm"--very anti-"Bad Boy" trauma. Which ties in well to all the
producers' comments about "growing up".)

>the argument that the person who can hurt u most, is the one u love
most.

Well, they've raised this point, with Spike saying "you always hurt the
one you love" in "Dead Things" and nonplussing Buffy with it. But she
came to realize that she didn't love him last week, and since she's no
longer being made into a pathetic idiot, I no longer disbelieve her
statements.

Plus I have real doubts that they would have an ep where they make all
those positive statements about Love ("best friend forever" "warm and
safe") and at the same time actually be saying that dysfunction and
trauma are what Love is really all about--and do it in the same ep
where we see the painful, horrible relationship of Tony and Jessica
Harris, and see VisionXander smacking Anya with the frying pan.

If this ep is supposed to say that B/S is destiny, then it would also be
pushing Tony/Jessica as a dream couple. The ep was so pro-friend,
anti-dysfunction in its definition of Love, I can't see them making it
into a B/S argument.

Plus, let's not forget, it's not being WITH Spike that hurts, it's
giving him up. Spike is an anaesthetic, a cheap fix. Last week Buffy
said "it hurts less, for a while" when she's with him, but that's not
the solution.

When the Guide told Buffy in "Intervention" that "Love is Pain. Risk
the Pain", it meant to leave behind the surface sexuality and cheap
comfort of B/S and face the hard work and scary emotions (just ask
Xanya) that True Love demands.

The question is really whether that's going to be Willow, Xander, or
Angel. (Yes, Broody's back in the hunt--the simultaneous demise of B/S
and A/C does tend to make you think. Although he's not Buffy's best
friend, either.)

>Hilarious review, Dan

Thanks lots, although I worry I'm a little over-snarky now. (Television
Without Pity can be a really bad influence?)

Glad you liked it, anyway.

Dan