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annathepiperLike, for example, last night's Buffy.
Which had less Spike mileage than I was hoping for, and contrary to the opinion of certain persons (not that I'm looking in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird's direction or anything), I don't want to see my heroic, tarnished heroic, or even formerly villainous and now working on heroic figures just getting the shit kicked out of themselves. If the plucky heroine can't be there to help the poor guy out, we need to see him standing strong in the face of evil.
Happily, we got that. Well, okay, he was sort of slumped over in the face of evil, but standing in a metaphorical sense! Spike's shining exchange in the whole episode was here, when the First was trying to force him to choose sides between evil and goodness:
The First: "What makes you think you have a choice?!"
Spike: "She does. She believes in me."
Me: "YES!"
Some of the rest of the episode was disjointed for me, though. Like the whole sequence when one of the young proto-Slayers apparently just bolted out of the house for no apparent reason, and just happened to get tackled by the Ubervamp, till Buffy caught up and got her ass kicked by said Ubervamp. Through most of that sequence I kept wondering if this was another dream, since the previous seemingly disjointed bits in the episode had been Buffy falling asleep in her exhaustion. This bit flowed funny for me, and felt sort of stuffed in without enough connection to everything else that was going on.
I'm also not sure what to think of the Ubervamp. If that thing is to regular vamps like Neanderthals are to humans, is it just a killing machine and is it going to be the nasty muscle for the First through the rest of the season, or what? Is it sentient?
I am pretty amazed that ol' Joss wiped out the entire Watcher's Council. Which leaves Giles, pretty much, and maybe Wesley... but then again, a real interesting point was raised re: Giles. And that was, that at no point during the episode did we see Giles actually touch anything or carry anything. Which is a pretty alarming consideration given that we don't actually know what happened between Giles (apparently) almost getting his head chopped off and showing up at Buffy's door. o.O
I will be immensely pissed off if Giles has been killed off... but then again, if he has, then WTF is the (apparent) Giles presence bringing the baby Slayers to Sunnydale? The First being extra special devious? Or is it Giles' ghost?
Or is all of this coincidental speculation, and is this still actually Giles and we don't have anything to worry about? Joss is just that damned devious that I DON'T KNOW!
And while we're on the topic of WTF, WTF was the Joyce presence in Buffy's dreams? "The First" seems almost a too-easy answer, since that's what Buffy thought. I do kind of like the idea that Joyce herself might be struggling to get through to her daughter... though it seems somehow contradictory to the (apparent) Joyce presence telling Dawn that when things are bad, Buffy won't choose her.
Other random comments...
spazzkat kept hollering for Faith all throughout this episode. I'd really like to see Faith busted out of prison and brought in on the battle somehow, if possible. If the minions of the First are taking out potential Slayers and their Watchers and aiming ultimately for Faith and Buffy, Faith is not safe in jail. Buffy even mentioned Faith as a target.
The Nerds of a Feather moments between Andrew and Xander were very funny. Hehehehehe.
Very interesting subtexts running under the conversations between Buffy and the principal. One does wonder exactly what effect it's had on Principal Wood that he just seemingly happened to wander down into the basement and find Jonathan's body.
And last, but not least, Buffy's speech at the end. Buffy's "Fuck You Evil" speech. That was BEAUTIFUL. The prelude to it brought back echoes of the "ohmigod we're going to get our asses kicked we need to flee" reactions we saw when everybody tried to flee Glory... but to see Buffy come out and announce that they were now an army and that she was going to take out the First herself was magnificient.
Which had less Spike mileage than I was hoping for, and contrary to the opinion of certain persons (not that I'm looking in
solarbird's direction or anything), I don't want to see my heroic, tarnished heroic, or even formerly villainous and now working on heroic figures just getting the shit kicked out of themselves. If the plucky heroine can't be there to help the poor guy out, we need to see him standing strong in the face of evil.Happily, we got that. Well, okay, he was sort of slumped over in the face of evil, but standing in a metaphorical sense! Spike's shining exchange in the whole episode was here, when the First was trying to force him to choose sides between evil and goodness:
The First: "What makes you think you have a choice?!"
Spike: "She does. She believes in me."
Me: "YES!"
Some of the rest of the episode was disjointed for me, though. Like the whole sequence when one of the young proto-Slayers apparently just bolted out of the house for no apparent reason, and just happened to get tackled by the Ubervamp, till Buffy caught up and got her ass kicked by said Ubervamp. Through most of that sequence I kept wondering if this was another dream, since the previous seemingly disjointed bits in the episode had been Buffy falling asleep in her exhaustion. This bit flowed funny for me, and felt sort of stuffed in without enough connection to everything else that was going on.
I'm also not sure what to think of the Ubervamp. If that thing is to regular vamps like Neanderthals are to humans, is it just a killing machine and is it going to be the nasty muscle for the First through the rest of the season, or what? Is it sentient?
I am pretty amazed that ol' Joss wiped out the entire Watcher's Council. Which leaves Giles, pretty much, and maybe Wesley... but then again, a real interesting point was raised re: Giles. And that was, that at no point during the episode did we see Giles actually touch anything or carry anything. Which is a pretty alarming consideration given that we don't actually know what happened between Giles (apparently) almost getting his head chopped off and showing up at Buffy's door. o.O
I will be immensely pissed off if Giles has been killed off... but then again, if he has, then WTF is the (apparent) Giles presence bringing the baby Slayers to Sunnydale? The First being extra special devious? Or is it Giles' ghost?
Or is all of this coincidental speculation, and is this still actually Giles and we don't have anything to worry about? Joss is just that damned devious that I DON'T KNOW!
And while we're on the topic of WTF, WTF was the Joyce presence in Buffy's dreams? "The First" seems almost a too-easy answer, since that's what Buffy thought. I do kind of like the idea that Joyce herself might be struggling to get through to her daughter... though it seems somehow contradictory to the (apparent) Joyce presence telling Dawn that when things are bad, Buffy won't choose her.
Other random comments...
spazzkat kept hollering for Faith all throughout this episode. I'd really like to see Faith busted out of prison and brought in on the battle somehow, if possible. If the minions of the First are taking out potential Slayers and their Watchers and aiming ultimately for Faith and Buffy, Faith is not safe in jail. Buffy even mentioned Faith as a target.The Nerds of a Feather moments between Andrew and Xander were very funny. Hehehehehe.
Very interesting subtexts running under the conversations between Buffy and the principal. One does wonder exactly what effect it's had on Principal Wood that he just seemingly happened to wander down into the basement and find Jonathan's body.
And last, but not least, Buffy's speech at the end. Buffy's "Fuck You Evil" speech. That was BEAUTIFUL. The prelude to it brought back echoes of the "ohmigod we're going to get our asses kicked we need to flee" reactions we saw when everybody tried to flee Glory... but to see Buffy come out and announce that they were now an army and that she was going to take out the First herself was magnificient.
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Re: Not agreeing about Giles being deadski
Date: 2002-12-20 11:50 am (UTC)What I can't figure out is if "the Joyce" that Dawn saw meant to make Dawn distrust Buffy, or if she meant the opposite but was limited on what she could share with those of this plane.
I am leaning towards the theory that she meant to help, but was only able to say what she said in an ambiguous way and Dawn took it the wrong way because she already had a seen of distrust of Buffy in her.
Re: Not agreeing about Giles being deadski
Date: 2002-12-20 08:50 pm (UTC)