Re: Re: Normal Again Mini-Review

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Ah, Regina,

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Some nice points you raised. Yes, it's amusing to think that if Buffy
believed she had constructed her life and looked at the B/W progression,
she'd have to come to the conclusion that her subconscious was
manipulating things so she and Willw could be together. "Did I have
Willow break up with Tara because I want her for myself?"  

Of course, now she knows that her life isn't just a figment of her
imagination, so she didn't make the breakup happen. But if she was
capable of believing that the W/T breakup of was a manifestation of her
own desires, then she's practically admitting that she has those
desires? Alas, Buffy never really got a chance to examine what her
"construction" of Sunnydale says about herself, so we can't really
extrapolate anything from Buffy's believing in conclusions she didn't
actually reach. But that was pretty damn close, I'll admit.

I saw the slight touching as a gradual move from the physical space of
earlier this year back to the more touchy-feely bond of yore. But
you're right that right now we have them cautiously reaching out,
touching but unsure how far to go--which is a pretty close cousin to
sexual tension, now that I think about it.

And, I'm sorry, but that's a retcon. Joyce was never depicted as being
unaware of Buffy's troubles--she just couldn't put her finger on what
was wrong. If Buffy had already confessed about slaying and had been
locked away for it, Joyce would have been looking for a recurrence of
Buffy's "delusions". To say that she "forgot"--what parent would
"forget" why they locked their kid up in a rubber room????--and
therefore Buffy could joke about "saving the world from vampires and
Joyce didn't blink, well, that's insane.

The only save I can come up with is that Buffy was so taken by the
reality of the hospital that she convinced herself she was extrapolating
from a "past experience" she never really had. Perhaps she used to have
nightmares about Mom and Dad finding out and locking her away, and under
the stress and the poison and the fever, she imagines that this actually
happened before, even though it didn't.

Dan

trying hard to make this work?