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Why I’m looking forward to S6.
Now this isn’t really about the fact that S8 appears to be crack!fic, what with the ridiculous ret-cons, or that it’ll be Bryan Lynch (yay!) penning S6. OK, so it’s a bit of that, I admit I am shallow. (I’m also currently praying that Franco Urro will do the artwork. Because I really, really like his style!)
But - I’ve been thinking about endings. I’ll never accept the comics as canon, but pre-comics I think that if I could have chosen the ending to mess with, I’d have gone with ‘Chosen’. Because NFA is just so utterly, utterly perfect. But having to face Joss messing with *both*, I’ve been forced to re-examine my feelings, and I’m more upset about S8 - and more excited about S6. There are several reasons for this:
1) Finished vs cancelled.
There were never going to be more than 7 seasons of Buffy. They knew right from the start of S7 that it was the last one (the parade of Big Bads in ‘Lessons’ is a good indicator). It went out on a high, and Joss admitted to being totally out of ideas.
There *was* going to be a S6! They planned for it right from the beginning and had to scramble to tie up all the lose ends when the show was cancelled. And I’m curious to see what we might have got... [cries for lost show and curses the WB]
2) Ret-cons.
I’m sorry, but the ones in s8 (or at least that particular one) just make my head implode. It says ‘f*ck continuity’ and undermines a brilliant moment. (And no, I don’t think it’s worth it!)
Now s6... the obvious one would be to bring back Wes. I doubt this could be done without undermining his death - but! He was only killed because the show was cancelled - he was sacrificed on the altar of ‘make the audience bawl its eyes out’. In a world where the show wasn’t cancelled he would have survived - they had stuff planned out for him in S6. So if they ret-con him... I’ll understand why.
3) The endings.
I know I’ve gone on about this at length, but what I love about the end of ‘Chosen’ is that Buffy is *free*! In theory she can do whatever she wants, and - I’ve come to realise - this is something infinitely precious. That moment at the edge of the Hellmouth is where canon stops. The trails fanning out from there head off in so many directions that to choose just one narrative is a huge, *vast* reduction in scope. As I said above, I’ve realised that the ending of ‘Chosen’ is more important to me than NFA - because Buffy is human, and because she - for the first time since she was called - has her whole life in front of her. I don’t want that messing with. (Especially not for the sake of sending her to a Scottish castle with Giant!Dawn, Suave!Xander, Super!Willow etc...)
Now the *point* of ‘Not Fade Away’ is that it is Angel’s destiny to fight:
The point of Angel was always that the fight never ends. He'll always fight. It's an eternity of fighting. You can't ever win but the fight is worth fighting.
David Fury
His path from the alley only leads to more battles. So the fact that we’ll get another story about Angel fighting pleases me. (Oh and given the writer, I sincerely doubt that Spike will be 'following Angel around like a puppy dog'. Bryan Lynch's Spike is a BDH and *very* independent!)
4) Shipping.
A lot of people aren’t interested in s6, because it’ll just (needlessly they think) delay Spike going to Buffy. (Or of course they’re just not interested in AtS full stop, which I can’t help them with, sadly). Now personally I think he made his choice in ‘Harm’s Way’ (for whatever reasons), and unless a reason comes along for him to seek Buffy out - or they accidentally cross paths - he’s not thinking in terms of ‘once this is over I’ll go to Buffy’. Anyway, what I’ve come to realise (and I feel like such a traitor) is that I love the characters above the ships. I adore Spuffy with all my heart, but if Spike stayed with Angel and never found his way back to Buffy, and she settled down with someone new and lived a happy life I’d be OK with that. Or if Spike and Angel split up and he went off on his own adventures I’d love that too (thank you Spike:Asylum!). I’m easy - as long as the stories are good, I’m happy to go almost everywhere, ships or no ships. For me that’s one of the joys of the open-endedness of the way the shows finished. Does that make me weird?
Actually re. Spike and being on his own - I don’t see Spike not going to Buffy as him ‘moving on’ per se. He will always love her and that’ll never change, even if he thinks he hasn’t got a shot at a proper future with her. But what he *does* do, I think, is adopt her outlook, her MO: ‘The mission is what matters.’
And that’s as many thoughts as I have room for today...
But - I’ve been thinking about endings. I’ll never accept the comics as canon, but pre-comics I think that if I could have chosen the ending to mess with, I’d have gone with ‘Chosen’. Because NFA is just so utterly, utterly perfect. But having to face Joss messing with *both*, I’ve been forced to re-examine my feelings, and I’m more upset about S8 - and more excited about S6. There are several reasons for this:
1) Finished vs cancelled.
There were never going to be more than 7 seasons of Buffy. They knew right from the start of S7 that it was the last one (the parade of Big Bads in ‘Lessons’ is a good indicator). It went out on a high, and Joss admitted to being totally out of ideas.
There *was* going to be a S6! They planned for it right from the beginning and had to scramble to tie up all the lose ends when the show was cancelled. And I’m curious to see what we might have got... [cries for lost show and curses the WB]
2) Ret-cons.
I’m sorry, but the ones in s8 (or at least that particular one) just make my head implode. It says ‘f*ck continuity’ and undermines a brilliant moment. (And no, I don’t think it’s worth it!)
Now s6... the obvious one would be to bring back Wes. I doubt this could be done without undermining his death - but! He was only killed because the show was cancelled - he was sacrificed on the altar of ‘make the audience bawl its eyes out’. In a world where the show wasn’t cancelled he would have survived - they had stuff planned out for him in S6. So if they ret-con him... I’ll understand why.
3) The endings.
I know I’ve gone on about this at length, but what I love about the end of ‘Chosen’ is that Buffy is *free*! In theory she can do whatever she wants, and - I’ve come to realise - this is something infinitely precious. That moment at the edge of the Hellmouth is where canon stops. The trails fanning out from there head off in so many directions that to choose just one narrative is a huge, *vast* reduction in scope. As I said above, I’ve realised that the ending of ‘Chosen’ is more important to me than NFA - because Buffy is human, and because she - for the first time since she was called - has her whole life in front of her. I don’t want that messing with. (Especially not for the sake of sending her to a Scottish castle with Giant!Dawn, Suave!Xander, Super!Willow etc...)
Now the *point* of ‘Not Fade Away’ is that it is Angel’s destiny to fight:
The point of Angel was always that the fight never ends. He'll always fight. It's an eternity of fighting. You can't ever win but the fight is worth fighting.
David Fury
His path from the alley only leads to more battles. So the fact that we’ll get another story about Angel fighting pleases me. (Oh and given the writer, I sincerely doubt that Spike will be 'following Angel around like a puppy dog'. Bryan Lynch's Spike is a BDH and *very* independent!)
4) Shipping.
A lot of people aren’t interested in s6, because it’ll just (needlessly they think) delay Spike going to Buffy. (Or of course they’re just not interested in AtS full stop, which I can’t help them with, sadly). Now personally I think he made his choice in ‘Harm’s Way’ (for whatever reasons), and unless a reason comes along for him to seek Buffy out - or they accidentally cross paths - he’s not thinking in terms of ‘once this is over I’ll go to Buffy’. Anyway, what I’ve come to realise (and I feel like such a traitor) is that I love the characters above the ships. I adore Spuffy with all my heart, but if Spike stayed with Angel and never found his way back to Buffy, and she settled down with someone new and lived a happy life I’d be OK with that. Or if Spike and Angel split up and he went off on his own adventures I’d love that too (thank you Spike:Asylum!). I’m easy - as long as the stories are good, I’m happy to go almost everywhere, ships or no ships. For me that’s one of the joys of the open-endedness of the way the shows finished. Does that make me weird?
Actually re. Spike and being on his own - I don’t see Spike not going to Buffy as him ‘moving on’ per se. He will always love her and that’ll never change, even if he thinks he hasn’t got a shot at a proper future with her. But what he *does* do, I think, is adopt her outlook, her MO: ‘The mission is what matters.’
And that’s as many thoughts as I have room for today...
no subject
Well I'm not sure you can write off Joss as having no fannish preoccupations. They might be *different*, since as the creator of the 'verse he got to tell *his* story, and thus does not need to 'fix' anything in the same way others do... but he's still a fan with kinks and foibles.
Dawn reconciling with Spike is another fic standard that I think exists to recapture their S5 relationship and again these stories seem to ignore how the two characters developed subsequently.
Considering the way Joss has re-written the Dawn/Willow relationship, I'd say this isn't much of a problem.
Fanfic, almost by definition, doesn’t aim for originality [...] That perception thing is probably at the root of why we’re never going to agree on Spike: Asylum
Oh you *must* get it! The joy of that story is that it really is very, very original. New place, new challenges, and actual real character development:
I see the whole hero thing as somewhat of a regression to his death and glory days.
Do not be too sure of what we mean when we use the word 'hero'. Mostly I think it just refers to the fact that he's the central character, and not the sidekick. See Buffy is noble, and Spike wants to be like her. Angel strives to be noble and Spike simultaneously mocks that and wants to be better at it. This we have seen on screen. Take these two *away* and let Spike try to work things out for himself... how heroic is he? How noble? He has inbuilt 'What Would Buffy Do?' and 'What Would Angel Do?' reflexes. But when it comes down to it, he's neither - and when the chips are down 'What Would Spike Do?' is a *fascinating* concept to delve into.
no subject
The thing with Spike, I’m not interested in him being noble, he’s done there been that. I also think he’s a character that works better as a foil than a protagonist, by aiming to be his own man he becomes just another teflon anti-hero. If he were to have an arc though I’d rather see him learn self-reflection, doubt, kindness. To accept it as well as to give it. There were the beginnings of that in S7 and in Damage but still a long way to go.
no subject
I'd say more than one move, but yes.
I think Joss sees characters more as waves, all interacting parts of the fabric of a story. Whereas for fanfic writers they’re more like particles to be separated out discretely, rattled around and rolled into new settings quite independent of one another.
That makes sense. For me it was always about the characters - they were the reason I watched (even though of course I love all the crunchy meta!). It is the same with fic - I can appreciate a good plot, but I don't need it as long as the characters are good.
If he were to have an arc though I’d rather see him learn self-reflection, doubt, kindness. To accept it as well as to give it.
I really, truly think you'd like 'Spike: Asylum'. For a start there's group therapy...
SPIKE: Come on, hero. Tell me more. Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me.
ANGEL: Tell it to your therapist.
What if he had one?