Look, I had a *thought*!

[elisi]

First though, I must wish the Happiest of Birthdays to earth_vexer! May you continue to vex the earth for many, many years to come! :)

****
But! The Queen of Polls, gabrielleabelle, made a poll about which show is more adult/mature/dark - Buffy or Angel? Now it's tempting to go for Angel, but otoh there's few things as dark as S6 of BtVS... So, instead of doing the poll, I started turning the problem over in my head, because the shows are both dark, but in different way. And then I had a minor epiphany - the main character of each series is a reflection of the show overall:

BtVS is about a good person who's had darkness forced upon her.

AtS is about a bad person who's had goodness forced upon him.

I think everything springs from this.

Comments

[shapinglight]

I think that sums it up very neatly.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that BTVS had more depth and was less accessible than Ats and therefore more adult, even though the characters in Ats were more adult.

I still think it's true.

[zimshan.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Way to boil down twelve seasons into two sentences! But that might just be the best simple contrast summation I've ever seen about the two shows. I think it definitely rings true. Thanks for sharing your little epiphany! :)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

IMO you're not wrong.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Must think about this...

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

Frenchani said what I wanted to say. Ats never really convinced me, and IMO took itself much more too seriously (though they were able from time to time to make fun at this).

I'm not sure I agree with how you sum up the two shows, especially in the case of Ats. It works in the case of Btvs if we think about it in terms of how life's circumstances (for ex living in violent environement...) can reinforce our dark sides and turn us into violent persons or persons who have to fight hard against their own dark impulses. The opposite reverse doesn't work so well: how do you force goodness on someone? Seems a bit contradictory in terms.

[rahirah]

I'd disagree that Buffy had darkness forced on her. I would bet that if she had never been the Slayer at all, and she'd just gone through normal Bad Life Stuff - her mother dying, her father abandoning her to raise a sister with no skill and no money - she'd have ended up doing something very similar to S6. Emotional isolation, borderline self-destructive sleeping around. The only difference would have been that she would have been the one in danger of getting beaten up by her 'boyfriends', rather than the reverse.

Just as with Angel, it's not the monster in her than needs killing.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I agree with your summations!

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Those summation are really very insightful and clever.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

That is the thinkiest of thoughts!
*applauds*

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Like I said on Gabriellabelle's LJ, I like that summary! Obviously it's not the whole story, but it's a good way to encapsulate it.

I love them both without reason, but I do think AtS is darker in a lot of ways. I've never been able to re-watch the last half of season 3 for example.

One reason I rearely bother to read "AH everybody human" fic is that the slayer/ vampireness is such an integral part of these characters. It's what makes the fluffy little cheerleader dark, but it's what makes her interesting!