Because I'm incapable of shutting up my brain...

[elisi]

So, AOQ is up to 'I Was Made To Love You'. And he did not like it. Oh no. So I (we) actually re-watched it last night and it's a very, very good episode. Thoughts below the cut - but be warned, they're seriously jumbled up. Parts are from my response to AOQ, others are musings on DT.

Thoughts on IWMTLY
I found it pretty close to Excellent. A solid Good at any rate. Seriously. As I said before, the ideas it throws out are fascinating. I think it's a very logical follow-up to last weeks ep. (Crush). Because IWMTLY is all about love - what exactly is it? People are already discussing whether April was capable of real feelings, and how much emotion a robot can posses (why *did* her batteries last that long?)... remind you of anything? Superficially it's about Buffy coming to terms with single life (or rather not settling for just anything), but I think there's more to it than that. Buffy, Spike, Warren, Joyce and April are all searching for love. But love can't be manufactured - Warren made April 'to be perfect' and yet he grew bored with her and fell for Katrina instead. Because she surprised him. Buffy is looking for love, but realises that a relationship is not the same as love. Joyce seems the most sensible one - she's nervous of course, but she wants to find out who Brian is, see if they click, see what might be if they're both open to it.

(Also compare and contrast S5 Buffy with S2 Buffy in how she deals with Joyce's potential boyfriend. True he isn't a robot (at least as far as we know), but S2 Buffy was the epitome of sulky teen. I like the grown up version better.)

See there are incredibly strong parallels between Spike and April. Both were 'made to love someone' - to be the perfect partner. As we saw in FFL Dru chose William specifically as a companion because she was lonely. She wanted someone focussed only on her, because 'Daddy' was too wrapped up in Darla. But love isn't predictable, it's a very dangerous thing.

And what *is* love? Both April and Spike think that what they feel is love - does that make it so? (Think of it in the light of 'Blade Runner'.) Notice how Buffy tells Warren to 'break up properly' with April. To shut her down completely. Just like she did herself with Spike in 'Crush'. And yet, she sits with April as she slowly fades away - talking to her like she was real. (That whole conversation is brilliant - like Buffy talking with her own sub conscious. Maybe if she waits long enough *her* boyfriend will come back and say he's sorry...)

Warren... hmmm. I noticed that he used the word 'deserve'. He felt that he 'deserved' a relationship. Do we all deserve true love? And the way he told April that Buffy was the target... not nice. Understandable, but not nice. Generally he does a lot of walking away - doesn't want to deal with the consequences of his actions. Which sounds rather like Spike actually... [ETA: In this episode!]

~~~

See we already have a lot of the parallels that'll come into play in DT: Spike is Warren and Spike is April. But Buffy... Buffy isn't part of it yet. Although this scene says a lot:

TARA: But it's so weird. I mean, everyone wants a nice normal person to share with, but this guy, if he couldn't find that, I guess it's ... kinda sad.
Shot of Buffy staring at her hands.

I'm not going to go into all the stuff about reality, because I'd never get back out (and the baby woke up and is now sitting on my lap so I have to be swift), but I wanted to compare and contrast these two lines, because they show what Warren became - or rather what he made himself become:

IWMTLY:
WARREN: I mean, she's perfect. I don't know, I ... I guess it was too easy. And predictable. You know, she got boring. She was exactly what I wanted, and I didn't want her. I thought I was going crazy. Then something happened. Katrina was in my engineering seminar, and she was really funny and cool. You know, she was always givin' me a hard time, real ... unpredictable. She builds these little model monorails that run with magnets, and ... Anyway. I fell in love with Katrina.


DT:
WARREN: Look at her, man! The the shape of her lips. The smooth, silky skin. The way her nose- the way her nose crinkles when she laughs... (softly) She's perfect.

::shudders:: Damn that's disturbing...



You should also all go read this essay, it is *superb*: Mary Sue Goes Septic: Warren Meers.

Comments

[mefnord.livejournal.com]

I agree that Spike intents the comment as a compliment, but while watching it, I felt it truly offensive towards Buffy, not only because of her fears of having come back wrong, but also because it is IMO not something Buffy would ever see as a positive attribute. I think she sees herself more as a "Vanilla" kind of girl, or would like to see herself as such during that period of her life. To explain further: I think she yearns not only for a "normal" relationship as seen in S4/5, but also for a feeling of appreciation and protection and love (as the love of the Scoobies is tainted with her resurrection, Giles has left her and Dawn needs some being loved herself), yearns for a feeling of coming home - things that are a antithesis to wild animal sex of passion and lust and w/o love in her mind.

Maybe. I suck at the meta.

[liliaeth]

I don't know, I don't think Buffy would really like the nice soft vanilla relationship that she thinks she wants. She's got this idea of a normal life, that everyone tells her she should want, but I can't imagine a personality as naturally dominant as Buffy to be trully happy in a longterm relationship like that.

But then I see Buffy in charge, constantly, always. It's what I like about her, she doesn't have a genuinely submissive bone in her body.

[mefnord.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, yes, I agree. Obviously I forgot to mention the part where I think that (my) Buffy's apparent desire for a loving relationship in S6 (all the while punishing herself and pushing herself to some feelings by taking advantage of that un-loving relationship with Spike) is NOT what she really is made for.

I think she's cut out for some rough and tumble - but she is in no place to admit that in S6. Hence her disappointment at not having had herself altered on a substantial level during the resurrection, I think.

[rahirah]

Well, yeah, agreed, Buffy doesn't want to believe that of herself. But I would bet that if Riley had said something similar, she wouldn't have been nearly so freaked. It's not just what Spike's saying, it's that it's Spike who's saying it.

[mefnord.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that Spike is Spike is a big part of that, I am sure.

But you got me thinking about Riley and I just cannot imagine the words "You're such an animal" out of his mouth, other than in a cute way. Maybe. If he was drunk. And thinking of kittens. Ot baby seals. Heee. Which would make it sooo much more acceptable to Buffy.

And while I'm sure I'd ever only want that cute way in my life, I *love* the dirty Spike-way very much on TV!