Re: The essential B/W moments for fic writers?

["ebailey140" <ebailey140@xxxxxxx>]

--- In buffywantswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Rosie" <buffylover2003@c...>
wrote:
> You have hit on an essential bit of what was done...  I'm going to talk
> about season seven. For this trend wasn't just about Tara. It was
nothing
> short of the writing staff putting a real effort into killing off all
> Willow/Buffy subtext.

Seasons 4-6 had already done that, pretty well completely.  Season 7
just followed what had already been long established.  By then, we'd
already stressed Tara being Willow's "One True Love and Soulmate", and
the only woman Willow had ever been attracted to (which presented
another problem I'll cover in a bit), complete with the totally
unneccesary "breast girl" line.  This was followed by Xander, and only
Xander, being who Willow considered her best friend.    
> We were given one wonderful shippy moment at the end of Same Time Same
> Place. Yet by Selfless we get slapped in the face with Buffy/Willow
haven't
> ever been together. When they do that whole lots these people have slept
> with each other bit and make it very clear Willow and Buffy were not
on that
> list!

Well, Willow wasn't in the country at the time, let alone that scene,
so it had nothing to do with who'd been or hadn't been intimate with
her.  Angel, Riley, and Oz weren't mentioned either, remember.  The
only thing it established as canon was that Xander and Spike hadn't
slept together, as theirs was the only glance exchanged at the table
when the question was raised.  So, nothing implied about who Buffy had
slept with, there, unless she'd made it with both Xander and Anya.  :)  

> Moving onto the next bit to put a wedge between Buffy/Willow. That
> whole best buds W/X lusting after Dawnie until she turned around in Him.
> Basically beating the audience over the heads that Willow likes
girls just
> not Buffy. Then Kennedy was pretty much force fed to us In Bring the
Night.
> To stop anything resembling subtext between Willow/Buffy.

And, they tried to cover that (since people found it hard to accept
that after all those years with Buffy, Cordy, AND Faith, Willow never
was attracted to girls until she met Tara) with Kennedy's gaydar
explanation.  This, however, well...

WILLOW (taken aback) Hey! (Kennedy chuckles) What you think you have
some special lesbidar or something?

KENNEDY OK, you know there's a better word for that, right? (Willow
sips her drink) You really haven't been getting out there much, have you?

WILLOW Well, I just - can you always tell just - just by looking at
someone?

KENNEDY No. No, of course not. That wouldn't be any fun. The fun part
is the process of - of getting to know a girl. It's like - it's like
flirting in code.  It's using body language and laughing at the right
jokes and - and looking into her eyes and knowing she's still
whispering to you, even when she's not saying a word. And that sense
that if you can just touch her just once everything will be OK for
both of you. That's how you can tell. 

Ohhhh K!  So, Willow is bad at picking up signals.  Fine.  That
explains a lot.  But...  Well, Kennedy's description sounds...  kinda
familiar, doesn't it?  Only, the girl who's been doing that steadily
with Willow for seven years is someone we're told is straight.  Now,
granted, it had been a long time since she'd done the long eye
contact, communicating without words thing.  I mean, it was a whole
two episodes before...

Lots of mixed signals with Season 7.  Joss, himself, was responsible
for one of them, as he wrote and directed the Buffy scenes in
Conversations With Dead People, including where she finds out the
three big rumors about her in high school:  1, she was dating a much
older guy (Angel), 2, she was really religious (Well, she did have
lots of crosses and holy water), and 3, she was gay.   

> When Faith shows
> up in Dirty Girls she's been recreated with no sign what so ever, of
ever
> being sexually interest in girls let alone Buffy. So Much for
subtext and
> the love triangle of season three. 

Eliza said the reason she turned down the Faith spinoff was she
couldn't get a feel for the character, any more.

And, if Faith isn't into girls, how did she have fully functional
working gaydar in Who Are You?  She had Tara figured out, immediately.
  Of course, that same episode, she knew how to "be" Buffy with
Willow, doing the protective version of what Kennedy was describing. 
Then, of course, there's how the straight girl with fully functioning
gaydar kept doing all that with another straight girl throughout the
third season, and even the fourth...

E





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                     'Choices'

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