rivendellrose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rivendellrose) wrote2007-02-04 09:55 pm
rivendellrose) wrote2007-02-04 09:55 pm
Entry tags:
more Buffy - end of S5
Last night began with Kendra and I deciding that we were sufficiently recovered from the angst of "The Body" to continue with Buffy season 5... and ended at 1:30am when we finished the season. There were just too many great cliffhangers! We couldn't stop til we'd seen the whole thing.
Biggest thing that occurred to me at the end of all of that... S5 would've been a great place to leave the series. Just like that - just where the season ended. That was a fabulous finale, and it left all the characters in good (...well, good from a narrative point of view, at least) places. I don't know much about S6, aside from the musical episode and "Tabula Rasa," but I know enough about the end of the series proper to know that I sort of wish the series had ended this way. Apart from Buffy, everybody would've been happier, and even Buffy seemed pretty damned content with her decisions and her conclusion in "The Gift." From a narrative standpoint... that's how being a Slayer works.
The whole Glory/Ben thing was handled very well (ack, I mean that slash in the sense of "they are one and the same kind of" not in the "they're doing things" way!), particularly the fact that no one but Spike could seem to keep that thought in their head. I liked that - it was a good, sensible explanation of the whole thing. And Ben was adorable, so very human, and very understandable in the decisions he made throughout. I liked that character.
The RV chase scene rocked. Just plain and simple. However. Something oddly familiar, there at the end. What with the chase and then the relief of "yay, we got away from them" and then the harpoon. Through the windshield. And into someone's torso.
...Serenity flashback, anybody? Or rather, Serenity was a flashback of this? I swear, if I hadn't already been spoiled for Giles being alive in later episodes, I would have screamed bloody murder at that moment. As it was, I just swore and ranted at Joss for using the same damned dirty trick twice. Dear gods that man is evil!
(Buffy fans who were later Firefly fans, did this not freak you out, when you saw Serenity? Maybe it's just me... Or maybe there was enough gap between the two that it wasn't so noticeable for most folks. Still. SAME DAMNED THING! EXACTLY!)
Spike is adorable. I love that his moral compass is completely defined by who he's in love with at the time - when he's with Dru, it's all about chaos and evil and whatever the hell he wants to do, and then when he's in love with Buffy... it's all about Dawn, and protecting Buffy, and sort of being a reluctant hero/anti-hero kind of thing, and it irritates the hell out of him but he just can't help it. So very cute. However, it gives me pause on the whole "vampires have no soul (except Angel)" thing. At some point someone indicates that it's supposed to mean that normal vampires can't fall in love, but Spike is clearly (and consciously) an example against that, so I don't really get it. What's the difference? Aside from a whole long of Angel-angst, I mean. Particularly in this arc, and particularly at the end when Buffy has died, Spike sure as hell looks like he's got just as much emotional latitude as any human.
Honestly, I'm beginning to seriously ascribe to the theory that the whole soul thing is just one big metaphysical placebo for vampires. That sounds very glib, but honestly - if Angel, being raised a Catholic, is told that he has no soul, and he suddenly has vampiric urges and all that... yeah, he's going to be a bad guy. Hell, human!Angel didn't particularly look to me like the greatest guy to begin with. So it's probably not a big jump. Same with Spike - spited young man, vampire urges, Angel, Darla and Drusilla to teach him... yeah, he's gonna be a bastard. But then these gypsies perform a curse, tell Angel he has soul again... considering his upbringing, he's going to get pretty focused on the guilt and the state of that soul pretty quickly. Then he has a moment of true happiness, and he doesn't feel worthy of it... and on top of that, the gypsies told him he'd lose his soul if he had such a moment... so he freaks and goes evil again because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do. Whereas Spike, child of the enlightenment and deeply in love with Drusilla, doesn't give a damn. And then when he starts to have feelings for Buffy... things change. He changes. I know that later, in Angel, Spike supposedly picks up a soul of his own at some point... but honestly, I don't see how that would change him.
...Maybe my morality just doesn't fit with the whole good/evil, soul/soulless deal. And part of this is me playing devil's advocate to some extent, because it's fairly clear in canon that yeah, magic does something to Angel (ie, Willow restoring him when he's gone all bad), but I still think the whole soul thing is pretty iffy.
I totally had points other than vampire morality. I know I did. I just can't think of them right now.
I'd better go take a shower.
Biggest thing that occurred to me at the end of all of that... S5 would've been a great place to leave the series. Just like that - just where the season ended. That was a fabulous finale, and it left all the characters in good (...well, good from a narrative point of view, at least) places. I don't know much about S6, aside from the musical episode and "Tabula Rasa," but I know enough about the end of the series proper to know that I sort of wish the series had ended this way. Apart from Buffy, everybody would've been happier, and even Buffy seemed pretty damned content with her decisions and her conclusion in "The Gift." From a narrative standpoint... that's how being a Slayer works.
The whole Glory/Ben thing was handled very well (ack, I mean that slash in the sense of "they are one and the same kind of" not in the "they're doing things" way!), particularly the fact that no one but Spike could seem to keep that thought in their head. I liked that - it was a good, sensible explanation of the whole thing. And Ben was adorable, so very human, and very understandable in the decisions he made throughout. I liked that character.
The RV chase scene rocked. Just plain and simple. However. Something oddly familiar, there at the end. What with the chase and then the relief of "yay, we got away from them" and then the harpoon. Through the windshield. And into someone's torso.
...Serenity flashback, anybody? Or rather, Serenity was a flashback of this? I swear, if I hadn't already been spoiled for Giles being alive in later episodes, I would have screamed bloody murder at that moment. As it was, I just swore and ranted at Joss for using the same damned dirty trick twice. Dear gods that man is evil!
(Buffy fans who were later Firefly fans, did this not freak you out, when you saw Serenity? Maybe it's just me... Or maybe there was enough gap between the two that it wasn't so noticeable for most folks. Still. SAME DAMNED THING! EXACTLY!)
Spike is adorable. I love that his moral compass is completely defined by who he's in love with at the time - when he's with Dru, it's all about chaos and evil and whatever the hell he wants to do, and then when he's in love with Buffy... it's all about Dawn, and protecting Buffy, and sort of being a reluctant hero/anti-hero kind of thing, and it irritates the hell out of him but he just can't help it. So very cute. However, it gives me pause on the whole "vampires have no soul (except Angel)" thing. At some point someone indicates that it's supposed to mean that normal vampires can't fall in love, but Spike is clearly (and consciously) an example against that, so I don't really get it. What's the difference? Aside from a whole long of Angel-angst, I mean. Particularly in this arc, and particularly at the end when Buffy has died, Spike sure as hell looks like he's got just as much emotional latitude as any human.
Honestly, I'm beginning to seriously ascribe to the theory that the whole soul thing is just one big metaphysical placebo for vampires. That sounds very glib, but honestly - if Angel, being raised a Catholic, is told that he has no soul, and he suddenly has vampiric urges and all that... yeah, he's going to be a bad guy. Hell, human!Angel didn't particularly look to me like the greatest guy to begin with. So it's probably not a big jump. Same with Spike - spited young man, vampire urges, Angel, Darla and Drusilla to teach him... yeah, he's gonna be a bastard. But then these gypsies perform a curse, tell Angel he has soul again... considering his upbringing, he's going to get pretty focused on the guilt and the state of that soul pretty quickly. Then he has a moment of true happiness, and he doesn't feel worthy of it... and on top of that, the gypsies told him he'd lose his soul if he had such a moment... so he freaks and goes evil again because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do. Whereas Spike, child of the enlightenment and deeply in love with Drusilla, doesn't give a damn. And then when he starts to have feelings for Buffy... things change. He changes. I know that later, in Angel, Spike supposedly picks up a soul of his own at some point... but honestly, I don't see how that would change him.
...Maybe my morality just doesn't fit with the whole good/evil, soul/soulless deal. And part of this is me playing devil's advocate to some extent, because it's fairly clear in canon that yeah, magic does something to Angel (ie, Willow restoring him when he's gone all bad), but I still think the whole soul thing is pretty iffy.
I totally had points other than vampire morality. I know I did. I just can't think of them right now.
I'd better go take a shower.