Re: "Lies Joss Whedon Told Me" - LONG

[<djgirl1978@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi... I guess I'm kind of in the minority here, but I'm actually rather enjoying the end of this series. Maybe I'm just twisted. But here's my take on everything everyone's been saying.

First of all, Joss just created the show. Other people take over from there. So please please please stop saying that Joss is the devil because you don't like the episodes. The writers of this episode were David Fury and Drew Goddard, and David Fury directed it, so that would be who you should take your anger out on.

Next... Guys, we've known since the beginning of this show that Buffy's choices of who to fall in love with have been less than sensible. Let's run down her list, shall we? Angel, Scott Hope, Parker, RILEY for gods' sake, and Spike. Duh? We also know that Buffy has absolutely no clue how to handle her emotions. Why do you think she ran away at the end of season 2 rather than dealing with her feelings?

Keep a view of what you're dealing with here: Buffy was a shallow, vapid, clueless little Valley Girl, cheerleader and all. Look at first season Cordelia, and you have the basic essence that is Buffy. All the way up until about the middle of her freshman year of high school - not the most stable of times for any kid - when Merrick contacted her and let her know that shewas the Slayer. So here you have quite possibly the most immature form ofteenager available outside of a special education setting, and you're forcing her in one fell swoop to grow up and be responsible enough to start saving the world? The girl has no clue.

I'm thinking part of Cheerleader Buffy never died. When she made that jump... it's like... think about that ep The Replacement, when Xander took the Toth demon bolt and became two Xanders. If that bolt had hit Buffy like itwas meant to, what would you have been left with? Slayer Buffy, who is strong and powerful and driven and focused on her mission... and Teenybopper Buffy who never grew up.

Then Buffy's mom died - and we all know how well Buffy was prepared to be an adult and take care of her sister. Okay? I'm sorry, but everyone knows how totally immature Xander is, and HE is more of an adult than Buffy is. So up comes the chance for her to free herself of all her obligations and responsibilities, lay down her weary load as it were, and she takes it in a heartbeat. She leaves Dawn with nobody (in the way of family, I mean) and she selfishly - yes, SELFISHLY - commits suicide by hell portal. She didn't count on Willow being just as immature as she is and not being able to deal with her being gone.

So then we get season six, in which Buffy proves once again that she doesn't know how to handle her feelings. She buries them first by lying about the hell dimension/heaven thing, and then by having rough, abusive sex with Spike and LEADING HIM ON. Sure, she told him she didn't love him... she told him it was over... and then she kept going back to him every time. All she had to do was stop going back to him. She couldn't or wouldn't do that,and then she acted surprised when he misread her in the bathroom. Rape? I'm not so sure, really... I mean, after all, all their sexual encounters started with a terrible fight. God, the first time they had sex they brought an entire building down around them. And excuse me while I give a huge full-body shudder to the whole Spuffy relationship. EW! OK, done with that, sorry.

So now we have season seven, and the biggest and baddest thing Buffy has ever faced. Guys, I'm thinking she's getting a little desperate here. She'sgrasping at straws. She doesn't know how to fight this thing, and all shecan think is that she needs every weapon she can get, of whatever kind it should happen to be. She's not thinking clearly, people! She's scared shitless, in case none of you noticed. She's afraid that she's going to die again just when she's regained the will to live (post-evil Willow) and all her friends, everyone she loves is going to die... and let's not forget the fact that the only thing she's ever done right in her entire life is what an awesome Slayer she is, but if she loses to the First then she fucks that up just as badly as she's fucked up everything else. She's desperate. Shehas no idea what or who she's going to need. She only knows that Spike isthe strongest fighter they have next to herself. And she keeps throwing this thing out of Spike's soul - are you guys seeing that she's equating Spike's soul to Angel's? She thinks that now he has a soul, he's just like Angel, minus the happiness clause. but here's the difference: Angel has never been able to accept that HE didn't do those terrible things - Angelus did. Spike, on the other hand, has a general sense of his own relevance to the world around him. He understands that without his soul he was a monster,a demon... and that demon acted in the way it's hardwired to act.

The things Spike said to Wood were actually pretty much dead-on. Nikki wasa Slayer, Spike was a vampire. If Spike hadn't killed her, something elseeventually would have. It wasn't anything personal; it was the nature of the Slayer-vampire relationship. Think about Wishverse Buffy and how she staked VampXander without a second thought, simply because he was a vampire.It was nothing personal - it wasn't a matter of "you're the thing that killed this or that" - it was vampire-Slayer. The Master killed Wishverse Buffy because she was the Slayer and he was a vampire. It was, again, nothing personal. Wood's little vendetta is actually kind of pointless, when youthink about it.

So, guys, I can understand that you don't like what's going on - don't get me wrong - *I* don't like it, either - BUT if you take this season in context of the rest of the show, you can see that it's honestly the only logicalplace the writers could have gone. They've spent the last six years building Buffy as the most unlikely hero possible: the kind who's just a human being, like the rest of us. She's not supposed to get everything right, because you and I don't get everything right. If she HAD gotten everything right this season, and known what to do, and all that, I think I'd have felt a little bit cheated.

Just my two cents on the matter.

~~Rainne
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Willow: OK, now all I gotta do is contact the spirit world, harness the Delothrian ebb and focus it through my little marble o' doom here, and we'll restore the Muo-Ping's entropic equilibrium.
Gunn: Jar go smash?
Willow: Smash-o-crash.
Gunn: All I need to know. I'll be downstairs in case the Prince of Darkness wakes up.
--Angel ep 4.15 "Orpheus"--
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