Re: Re: Season 7 and B/W? (No Spoilers)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Cas,

>She took Willow's place in Buffy's life.

Yep. No longer is Willow the Innocent Buffy fights to protect, that's
Dawnie. Which not only hurts our ship, but even if we wanted to, it
would be rather tough to make the logical substitution, because
Buffy/Dawn comes with a much higher level of squickiness. Not to
mention that we had four years to get invested in Willow so that we
can't just transfer her role to Dawn in our minds. And I frankly think
that Aly is clearly the superior actress (which again, isn't to say that
Michelle hasn't done good work).

Although I'll keep giving Shiny McWhiny a good ribbing, I don't hate her
as some people do. I understand her purpose in the plot, she doesn't
wreck the show's morality like Spike does, and she's allowed to show
more versatility that the S.O.s are. But it's like they cancelled one
version of "Buffy" and replaced it with the other. Plus, I'm a little
resentful on Buffy's behalf, since her mind (and everyone else's) got
messed up by the Dawn-spell and never was fixed.

What I would really like to see would be for the spell to be lifted, but
Dawn to remain. The cast could keep both sets of memories, so Buffy
would remember what Dawn was talking about when she references the plate
she hid under her bed at the age of five ("Intervention"), but Buffy
also remembers that it was Willow, not Dawn, she dove through the window
to save from Ovu Mobani ("Dead Man's Party"). Plus, removing the Key
and leaving Dawn would definitively close off the "is she still the Key"
plot that no one seems willing to explore. (How the hell do they
**know** she has no power now? Did they have a doctor check her out?)

>Buffy actually beats the dirt monsters instead of them going poof.

OMG, I didn't even catch that. Not only is Buffy completely absent from
the fight to save Earth, she (and her designated successor) don't even
win their fight with, uh, earth. Gosh, that's lame.

Well, you know what Mad-Hamlet said on Joss getting stuck on that image
of Willow with Tara's blood on her face, that he liked it so much he
forced the arc to get there. Well, I think the same can be said for the
ending. Joss or Marti or Fury or someone wanted the big, thematic
ending of Buffy climbing out of the grave to end the season just like
she did to start it. And they forced the story to get it, and didn't
notice that it also meant:

? The whole B/W conflict is never resolved (including the lack of
follow-up scenes to the W/B and W/D confrontations in Petrie's ep)

? Xander delivers a big "we're family" speech, yet he's all alone.
(Well, for Xander, that may be the ideal family, but I digress. Anyway
contrast this with the group shot in "Family" as they face down the
Maclays.)

? Buffy shows no interest or concern about what happened to Willow to
make the magic stop.

? Willow and Xander are so busy hugging, they don't worry if the
Killer Dirt hurt Buffy and Shiny

? Buffy, who has been told by Anya that Giles is dying, takes Dawn for
a walk without worrying about that, either.

(these last three are due to the fact that since **Fury** knew everyone
was okay, he figured it was okay for them to act like they all knew it
too. Even though Giles's link to Willow seemed to only go one way, and
nobody was in touch with the Summers girls. So very sloppy.)

? Our hero's big life-affirming battle at the end of her excruciating
year is against some dirt. The Master, Angel, The Mayor, Adam, Glory,
dirt. (I mean, if you're going to stick Buffy with fighting the
subvillain, make it Amy or Rack or some famous and unstoppable demon,
not random brainless critters, for pete's sake.) And she, despite the
assist from Dawn-the-ridiculously-competent (I guess she's got
photographic reflexes or something), doesn't even win. What's that
detergent that advertises being "stronger than dirt"? I guess they can
claim to be stronger than Buffy, too.

All this, because Fury (or whoever) wants her climbing out of the grave
at the end. Much badness. Not to mention what one poster on another
board called a "tampon ad" afterwards, as Buffy and Dawn go "look,
trees". Willow bad, tree pretty. **sigh**

>I can't remember ever being an optimist.

Oh, I can. I came to this 'ship less than a year ago (just after you
did), full of optimism and joy at having realized the truth, and I came
to October all charged up to see a season through new eyes. (Well,
okay, I was worried by the Evil Willow rumors, but I told myself Joss
knows better than to do anything *that* trite, cliched and hackneyed.)

Now, so soon, I'm a depressed, cynical, bitter, ex-viewer. And I have
to wonder if it's just because this was my first year of really
exhaustive, internet-driven fandom.  

Would any other year have made me so bitter, too? Were my expectations
so high, nothing could satisfy them?

No, I don't think so. Actually, Marti *raised* my hopes in mid-season,
by ducking out of the Evil Willow thing (alas temporarily), giving B/W
the parallel plots, giving Buffy a boyfriend whom I thought was the
exact opposite of what she could have with Willow (little did I know
that we're supposed to see the parallel between Willow and "William",
that they're both weak, evil captives of their emotions who don't know
how to "grow up"), and having Fury actually raise the possibility in
"Gone". Or maybe I was just nuts. But I wasn't thinking "actual
hookup" going in, I just thought I'd get to savor the nice friendship
moments and imagine them being so much more. (Because they'd always be
friends, right?)

But I don't think Season 4 would have broken my heart so. Sure I'd be
pissed that we had a new set of obstacles (albeit definitely less-potent
ones than Angel and Oz), and I wouldn't have liked pissing away all the
subtext of the first half of the season to lock Willow away in Tara's
room. But we had one of the girls coming out, B/W saying "I love you"
(no "kind of") for the first time, Willow only going to Tara after Buffy
rejected her ("The I in Team"), Willow revealing that she'd planned on
being with Buffy for the rest of her life ("The Yoko Factor") and
"Restless", where we learn Willow has to leave Tara's "room" and face
her fears and that Buffy realizes her friends (not Riley) are what's
important, and defeats the Primal Slayer by merely affirming it. That's
a 'shippy year, overall.

Season 5, although IMO higher-quality storywise than S4, held more
'shippage problems, with Dawn coming in and Tara not going any where.
But Riley skedaddled, so Buffy (who was always going to be the primary
problem; can the audience accept a gay lead?) spent the last half of
the year single and realizing she didn't have to conform to society and
grab a boyfriend ('cause we knew Spike had no chance with her, right?).
And we got more "I love you"s and Willow was still the best friend and
we got to see Willow kick major butt which was cool-- 

(No it wasn't! She's evil! Attacking Glory was EVIL!!!! Because, uh,
um... [I never do understand why the "she was always evil" crowd bags on
"Tough Love". Does Glory not deserve to die? Does Willow attack anyone
else? That, not "Villains", is how Willow would respond to tragedy--by
caring for/honoring Tara and then going for the suicidal heroism, just
like Giles in "Passion".])

--and then there was heartbroken Willow in the finale, so I think
Season 5 would hardly have broken my heart. No, I'm blaming my reaction
to this year on, well, this year.

I am, however, glad to see that the script's up. I anticipate
cheerfulness, because:

? If it turns out they cut the good stuff, I'll say "well, so it
wasn't that bad; they just cut the wrong stuff".

? If it turns out they cut more crap, I'll say, "well, at least they
cut something; pity they couldn't have sliced another half-hour from the
ep."

So, I'm off to get happy. And thanks for your praise of my rewritten
scene. I look forward to when I don't have to do that any more (see!
Optimism! Naivete! Willful blindness! Possible Insanity! Yay!!!)

Dan

gone all loopy again...