OT: reply to Mudrat, re: episode discussion.

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Mudrat, 

Episode discussion is a part of our mission statement here. It says so
right on the main page. OT posts are also permitted, and should be
properly marked. Mine wasn't and my apologies for that.

Still, since virtually all the fic posts are marked FIC or FF in the
subject line, it should not be difficult for you to avoid non-fic posts,
if that is what you wish.

Saying that critics of the show should just stop watching is an argument
I have always found simplistic, regardless of what context it is made
in. "If you don't like America, leave!" or whatever. I don't agree
that someone must either love every single thing about every single
episode of BtVS or stop watching the series. In any event, criticism of
the series is perfectly okay here. Our mission is to support Buffy and
Willow in a romantic relationship. Criticism of that concept would be
flaming, and not be okay.

While I'm glad you matured greatly between the ages of 18-22, I tend to
doubt that you were fighting for your life every night and saving the
world when you were 16. So it's probable that the characters were
forced to mature faster than you, or Marti Noxon, did. If the
characters had become more mature than they had ever been before this
year, that would be one thing. However they were made to appear
significantly LESS mature than they had been before. This is called a
"forced regression for false growth", much like those episodes in which
Xander is made to look like a total incompetent in the first half, just
so the writers can have him be heroic in the second half and say "ha!
he's really not a loser, see?"--which anyone who'd been following the
series already knew. In other words, the characters already WERE grown
up, so ME's infantilizing them in order to say "Oh, grow up" seemed like
bad storytelling to me.

And of course, criticism of the last three years does not mean that
things should have stayed as they were. Just because people are
critical of changes does not mean they don't want any change. Likewise,
just because stagnation would be bad does not mean that the changes ME
have made in Season 4-6 are automatically for the good.  

Thank you for speaking your mind,

Dan