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Thoughts on 'The Wish'.
Watched ‘The Wish’ last night - and what do you know? Some rambling followed.
This episode is a fascinating look at the characters... it made me think an awful lot. Originally I just wanted to watch it for Buffy - all this talk of how Buffy turned into a complete bitch in later seasons - how much of a basis is there for that theory in ‘The Wish’? Not sure if I actually came to any conclusions, but here are my thoughts - ordered by character:
The Master: I never really liked him in S1, but here he’s delightful - the scene where he drinks what I presume is blood out of a teeny little cappuccino cup? Adored it. It’s all about the power for him, and I think in some ways his outlook is very much like Wolfram & Hart - lets use what the humans have created to destroy the world.
Willow: Vamp!Willow is interesting - she was obviously vamped when she was still shy, little nerdy Willow and is very playful - enjoying her power, enjoying being everything she was not. Very much like William actually. She’s let all the stuff she suppressed come to the surface. But although she is deviant and very unpleasant I didn’t find her all that scary - comparing her with Dark!Willow she's a much lighter baddie, if you can see what I mean. Dark!Willow is full of anger and hate and rage - she doesn’t play. Willow went through a lot in the years that separate her from Vamp!Willow and it shows - there is a darkness to her that’s very different.
Xander: Oh, Xander - now him I found chilling. NB does nasty very, very well. We saw some of it in ‘The Pack’, but it’s fully fledged here. Vamp!Xander is not playful - he’s more calculating. He enjoys watching. All the daftness of human Xander have vanished, leaving a cold, brutal killer. Vamp!Xander is an Angelus in the making, and under the guidance of The Master he would have been exceptional. All of which made me wonder - where is all that in human Xander? It’s a side we rarely - if ever - see. Which I guess is something that ties him to Angel again... who - looking at Liam - could have guessed at what lay inside?
Angel: I don’t know if I could have loved Angel more in this episode. I mean look at this bit of dialogue:
Angel: I waited. I waited here for you. But you never... I was supposed to help you. [...] The Master rose. He let me live... to punish me. I kept hoping maybe you'd come. My destiny.
My destiny!!!!! I just wanted to hug him. The only character to be *exactly* the same! ::loves:: (I don’t think I can say any more - I mean what more is there to say? Except that he looked really hot! Mmmm, eye candy!)
Buffy: Oh, but she’s an interesting one. This is Buffy without friends and family - Buffy the Vampire Slayer with everything stripped away. Buffy who’s only the Slayer, not the girl as well. But it’s fascinating to see how ‘Buffy’ she is anyway:
She doesn’t take orders - is not an obedient little Slayer like Kendra:
Giles (on the phone to Buffy’s Watcher): Yes, I understand, but it's imperative that I see her. Here. (listens) Well... when will you? (listens) Yeah, well, you are her Watcher. I'd expect her to at least check in to...
She doesn’t sit around waiting, she makes a plan and implements it straight away. She’s good at taking advantage of unexpected help (Angel). And very good at slaying of course.
It’s the other things that stand out though:
Buffy: World is what it is. We fight. We die. Wishing doesn't change that.
She’s very weary and disillusioned. She doesn't have Faith’s joy of life. She slays because that’s what she’s good at - it’s her duty, her life. If she met Dracula and he told her she was a killer, she’d just shrug. Of course she’s a killer.
How does she compare to S6 - S7 Buffy? I’m not sure... There is a hardness to her, that we very seldom see on the show. The real Buffy is torn - in ‘Selfless’ she shuts down into that hard core, so she can kill Anya - but Wishverse Buffy would never need to - she’s there already. Which of course gets her killed. Because Spike was right (as he very often is) - it’s her ties to the world that keep her alive. And in S6 and S7 she fights very hard to keep hold of those ties - to keep hold of her life. She can be harsh and cruel when she gets desperate, but I think this is because of who she is and what she is. There is that hard core inside her that she can fall back on - if she has to, she can strip everything away. And it isn’t pretty, but it gets the job done. And that’s what matters. It’s how she killed Angel.
But I don't think that she wants to be that Buffy - the cold, cruel one. She wants to be happy and to be loved. It's just that as life gets harder and harder, and her calling continually forces her to maker ever more difficult choices, she has to fight all the more to keep hold of Buffy-the-girl.
Did any of that make sense? I just feel like I was waffling. Now I’d love for all you clever people to bring up lots of excellent points that I’d never even though of. :)
This episode is a fascinating look at the characters... it made me think an awful lot. Originally I just wanted to watch it for Buffy - all this talk of how Buffy turned into a complete bitch in later seasons - how much of a basis is there for that theory in ‘The Wish’? Not sure if I actually came to any conclusions, but here are my thoughts - ordered by character:
The Master: I never really liked him in S1, but here he’s delightful - the scene where he drinks what I presume is blood out of a teeny little cappuccino cup? Adored it. It’s all about the power for him, and I think in some ways his outlook is very much like Wolfram & Hart - lets use what the humans have created to destroy the world.
Willow: Vamp!Willow is interesting - she was obviously vamped when she was still shy, little nerdy Willow and is very playful - enjoying her power, enjoying being everything she was not. Very much like William actually. She’s let all the stuff she suppressed come to the surface. But although she is deviant and very unpleasant I didn’t find her all that scary - comparing her with Dark!Willow she's a much lighter baddie, if you can see what I mean. Dark!Willow is full of anger and hate and rage - she doesn’t play. Willow went through a lot in the years that separate her from Vamp!Willow and it shows - there is a darkness to her that’s very different.
Xander: Oh, Xander - now him I found chilling. NB does nasty very, very well. We saw some of it in ‘The Pack’, but it’s fully fledged here. Vamp!Xander is not playful - he’s more calculating. He enjoys watching. All the daftness of human Xander have vanished, leaving a cold, brutal killer. Vamp!Xander is an Angelus in the making, and under the guidance of The Master he would have been exceptional. All of which made me wonder - where is all that in human Xander? It’s a side we rarely - if ever - see. Which I guess is something that ties him to Angel again... who - looking at Liam - could have guessed at what lay inside?
Angel: I don’t know if I could have loved Angel more in this episode. I mean look at this bit of dialogue:
Angel: I waited. I waited here for you. But you never... I was supposed to help you. [...] The Master rose. He let me live... to punish me. I kept hoping maybe you'd come. My destiny.
My destiny!!!!! I just wanted to hug him. The only character to be *exactly* the same! ::loves:: (I don’t think I can say any more - I mean what more is there to say? Except that he looked really hot! Mmmm, eye candy!)
Buffy: Oh, but she’s an interesting one. This is Buffy without friends and family - Buffy the Vampire Slayer with everything stripped away. Buffy who’s only the Slayer, not the girl as well. But it’s fascinating to see how ‘Buffy’ she is anyway:
She doesn’t take orders - is not an obedient little Slayer like Kendra:
Giles (on the phone to Buffy’s Watcher): Yes, I understand, but it's imperative that I see her. Here. (listens) Well... when will you? (listens) Yeah, well, you are her Watcher. I'd expect her to at least check in to...
She doesn’t sit around waiting, she makes a plan and implements it straight away. She’s good at taking advantage of unexpected help (Angel). And very good at slaying of course.
It’s the other things that stand out though:
Buffy: World is what it is. We fight. We die. Wishing doesn't change that.
She’s very weary and disillusioned. She doesn't have Faith’s joy of life. She slays because that’s what she’s good at - it’s her duty, her life. If she met Dracula and he told her she was a killer, she’d just shrug. Of course she’s a killer.
How does she compare to S6 - S7 Buffy? I’m not sure... There is a hardness to her, that we very seldom see on the show. The real Buffy is torn - in ‘Selfless’ she shuts down into that hard core, so she can kill Anya - but Wishverse Buffy would never need to - she’s there already. Which of course gets her killed. Because Spike was right (as he very often is) - it’s her ties to the world that keep her alive. And in S6 and S7 she fights very hard to keep hold of those ties - to keep hold of her life. She can be harsh and cruel when she gets desperate, but I think this is because of who she is and what she is. There is that hard core inside her that she can fall back on - if she has to, she can strip everything away. And it isn’t pretty, but it gets the job done. And that’s what matters. It’s how she killed Angel.
But I don't think that she wants to be that Buffy - the cold, cruel one. She wants to be happy and to be loved. It's just that as life gets harder and harder, and her calling continually forces her to maker ever more difficult choices, she has to fight all the more to keep hold of Buffy-the-girl.
Did any of that make sense? I just feel like I was waffling. Now I’d love for all you clever people to bring up lots of excellent points that I’d never even though of. :)
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It still has some of my favourite BtVS moments, but they're exclusively centered round Spike, except for Selfless. In other seasons, I found things to like about the other characters too, in season 7, not so much.
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Well, I can understand that - but in a way it's a good thing. 7 years is a long time and the characters went to a lot of bad places, often showing them in a very unflattering light. And I'm oddly pleased with that - because RL people are flawed and unpleasant a great deal of the time. I might not like the characters as much as I once did, but considering what's happened to them, I find that they ring very true.
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As for the breathing, your comment brought the scene from The Yoko Factor to mind where Spike, all dressed in his faux!BDUs (roarrrr) stopped outside of Giles' apartment and started gasping for breath to make it look like he was all breathless from running. Ha!