Re: OT?: Multi Subject Diatrabe.(IE. Reflections/Predictions)

["wizathogwarts" <mcronin24@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mad and everyone else,

I've preserved the salient points of your previous posting that 
resulted in the 2 day debate I had with my smarter half while 
driving down I5 to to the northern California coast. Since she has 
long ago abandoned the concept of self termination, I tried 
inefectually to convinced her not to take a contratct out on Joss. 
(Just kidding, I'm pretty sure). 
The reason I kept these particular points is because they were the 
catalyst for our discussion.
I recall as we were just approaching Grants Pass, she said to me,
"If Joss wanted an evil Willow, why didn't he just proceed doing so 
from 'Smashed'? Everything was all primed for Willow to go bad from 
there. And throw in Rack, you had all the makings for some great 
evil. But no, instead of Tara being around to help Buffy save 
Willow from herself and save their relationship and friendship like 
happens in REAL LIFE, we get the nerd squad creating improbable 
scenarios that even Alice would find incredulous. And becuase Joss 
feels so ill about Tara dying, and since it feels so bad it has to 
be right, he decides that killing Tara is the best way to make 
Willow evil. That wasn't the best way, it was the lazy way and 
clearly shows that Joss has totally lost touch. Didn't we just 
watch an interview where he cleary states that Buffy is a reality 
based show?"
This is where I'm very glad her seat belt is on because she starts 
screaming, "What the hell is more real? Two people helping someone 
they love and care about get away from the wrong crowd and help her 
into a program of support and responsibility? Or, have the someone 
who for the previous 5 years devoted her life to helping save people 
go totaly psycho when her lover is killed by a stray 22 caliber 
bullet that from a good 50 feet in the back yard, pierced a wall and 
then completely passed through the torso of an adult woman. And lest 
we forget, the previous bullet from the same gun, fired a mere 10 
feet away stays lodged in the chest of a somewhat thinner woman. 
And now with this highly improbable death, Willow, who is completely 
determined to destroy the world and has the power to do so, is 
miraculously saved with 3 'I love you's' from the guy who spent the 
last half of the season behaving like a total jerk and never 
accepting responsibility for being an emotional coward. 
NO!, he's totally redeemed because he can tell his oldest friend 
that he loves her. And Anya looks at Giles upon hearing this and 
gives this look of hope and pride, If I hadn't been so pissed, I 
would have puked!
This is why Joss has lost touch with reality! I know you're going 
to watch next season, but I can't. I just can't bear to watch 
characters that I spent 5 years falling in love with be so abused. 
The relationship between Willow was the most real and loving one 
I've ever seen on TV, and he killed it, he killed it because he said 
it hurt so much to do it, which means that he will continue to do 
what ever hurts the most, whether it's real or not."
For the rest of the trip, I pondered the prospect of watching season 
7 alone, and I now have an inkling of how Willow felt when Tara died 
in her arms.


Tara: I am, you know.
Willow: What?
[Tara turns and looks up at Willow.]
Tara: Yours.
[Willow smiles.]


--- In buffywantswillow@y..., Mad Hamlet <Mad-Hamlet@u...> wrote:
> There's also Joss's statement(Which I think was a masterful bit of 
Hollywood
> manipulation, he might have even meant it.) about being offended 
at not being
> allowed to kill Tara because she was gay.
> 
> What causes me distress is how maligned the story has become and 
THAT is what
> a lot of people havn't noticed, or if they have I havn't seen it. 
(BUT, in all
> fairness my time has been limited, recently becoming even more so. 
Jee, I
> wonder why. OH YES! That's right, I've been newly promoted 
to 'Daddy'. Silly
> me.) 
> 
> Picture one of those cartoons where the character rolls a snowball 
down a
> hill. As it rolls it aquires mass, interia and momentum. These are 
diffilcult
> forces to overcome and it is, genreally considered, to stand in 
front of a
> large snowball rolling at you at three thousand miles per hour. 
This is the
> same for stories.
> 
> When its begun a story is a small thing, easy to move, shift and 
alter at the
> creators whim. When it is BIG and STRONG it is far more diffilcult 
and
> dangerous to do so. Stories work best, after they've matured, when 
they are
> 'nudged' or coerced. Don't let a story roll over you, but DON'T 
force the damn
> thing. That can cause just catastrophic damage to the actual 
story. 
> 
> Lets go back to the snowball analogy. If, for some insane reason, 
you want to
> preserve the three thousand MPH, forty foot tall snowball BUT you 
don't want
> it to crush the village of the Sponge People, the best thing to do 
would be to
> hit it, with just the right amount of force, at just the right 
time, at just
> the right angle. The snowball changes course, but maintains its 
speed,
> momentum and the direction is JUUSSSST a bit differint. So, to 
save the
> Snowball AND the village, you must be subtle and NOT wack the damn 
thing with
> a large, black, heavy wrecking ball.
> 
> Guess what Joss did?
> 
> Here's what I THINK happened. Joss was pondering his story, where 
to go, what
> to do next. He had his hands in the River of the Story and was 
feeling the
> current. Then he got a flash! An image of something in his minds 
eye that
> grabbed him by his metaphorcal scrotum and SQUEEZED!! 
> This was probably 'Black Willow'. 
> 
> But the inertia of the story didn't go that way. Given time it 
could have been
> nudged in that manner but he didn't have time, he wanted it NOW!
('Now' being a
> relative term because, or at leasts its claimed and I believe 
them, seasons
> are written well in advance.) So he takes that there snowball 
called BtVS and
> gives it an ALLMIGHTY WACK!!
> 
> And that is his right. 
> 
> But the damaage is plain to see.
> 
> This has _NOTHING_ to do with 'Dead Lesbian' cliche, this is The 
Story and the
> story was violated. (Though the whole 'Dead/Crazy Lesbian' cliche 
IS real and
> IS rather nasty and HAS been happening since the damn 60's
(Possibly earlier,
> I'm not sure.)) Its very visible, the wreckage of what the story 
was. The
> instances of occurance where you were screaming at the 
screen 'THAT CHARACTER
> WOULDN'T DO THAT!' or other such stuff.
> 
> I've even heard, that way back when they were filming 'Wrecked' 
Aly herself
> wanted to have a 'chat' with Joss, upset at how her character was 
acting. She
> was told to 'Trust Them, They Knew What They Were Doing'.
> 
> Uh-huh. 
> 
> Right.
> 
> So my major gripe is, not what happened to Tara(It sucked.) Not 
what happened
> to Willow(That sucked even more.) Buffy having sex with Spike(That 
didn't
> quite suck as much as Tara but it still sucked.) BUT how, ALL 
THESE SUCKWORTHY
> THINGS HAPPENED BECAUSE (As I see it) JOSS HAD AN IDEA HE WOULDN'T 
LET GO!!
> 
> I cannot count the number of times I've had an idea for a scene, 
or a bit of
> dialiouge that I just HAD to get into the story, IT HAD TO BE 
DONE!! (My
> metaphorical scrotum was being squeezed.) but, working at it a 
bit, fiddling
> with 'The Story' here and there, I realized that it simply could 
not be. The
> interia, the flow, the direction and speed of the story would not 
allow it and
> forcing the issue would do nothing benificial.