So... that Mark. I think I've worked it out. :)

[elisi]

(Karen Gillan in my icon is doing a Mark impression...)

First of all, then many thanks go to gabrielleabelle for suggesting that Mark is so... OTT in his Buffy reviews because he expects angst. Because suddenly he was easy to diagnose. Basically he suffers from pre-Traumatic Joss Syndrome.

His tagline is 'You're Not Prepared', but this actually misleading. I don't mean that he's spoiled, but he is prepared. Here are my approximations of his mindset for various things:

Buffy:
'OH NOES IT'S JOSS AND HE LOVES TO STAB PEOPLE IN THE BACK WHEN THEY FEEL HAPPY! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE PERPETUAL HEARTBREAK, ANYONE COULD DIE AT ANYTIME! WILL IT BE THIS EPISODE THAT BREAKS ME FOR GOOD? OR THIS ONE? OR THIS ONE? OR...'

Lord of the Rings:
'OMG EVERYTHING IS EPIC AND EVERYTHING IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL FANTASY THAT COMES AFTER AND HOW SHALL I DEAL???'

Moffat Who:
'EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE CLEVER AND COMPLICATED OH NOES WHAT-IS-GOING-ON-I-CAN'T-WORK-IT-OUT-HELP!!!!'

Twilight:
'THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE RUBBISH AND TERRIBLE - AAAAAAAH! IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN I THOUGHT! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? AND IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE...'

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Didn't The Wish come before Amends...and wasn't it supposed to watched on Monday? This is so pathetic, I'm clearly jumping over to read his Buffy posts at lunch to amuse myself. ;-)

[elisi]

Nope, we are up to Amends now. And I know this, because I've just read it. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, you don't understand. I wasn't able to see his reviews of the Wish or Amends until now. For some reason every time I hunted for it - all I got was Lover's Walk.

Two observations?1) This man is a HUGE Cordelia shipper. And a huge Xander/Cordy, Oz/Willow shipper. He did not like their breakup. (He's going to hate Angel S4). Cordy is clearly his favorite character. Also he clearly has major issues with infidelity. Big trigger for him - if he thinks Lover's Walk is the hugest episode ever?? He fell for the mislead that the Wish is a Cordelia centric episode, no. It's a Buffy centric episode - what would life have been like if Buffy never came to Sunnydale.

2) He's deliberately looking at this series through a very immature and somewhat "teen" lense. Possibly, because he is trying to write a YA novel and attempting to find the voice for it and appeal to that young teen male audience. But it rings false, because he is 28 years of age.

[elisi]

No, you don't understand. I wasn't able to see his reviews of the Wish or Amends until now. For some reason every time I hunted for it - all I got was Lover's Walk.
Ah yes, you had to go to the main page. No idea why - maybe he tagged them wrong or something?

This man is a HUGE Cordelia shipper.
I KNOW. And has been since day 1. Complained about her lack of development about 3 episodes in... And I've been thinking the same as you - AtS S4 will be HELL.

He's deliberately looking at this series through a very immature and somewhat "teen" lense.
Possibly because he over-identifies with the whole High School thing. I dunno. I'm used to not getting that part of people's flailing.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I don't understand his love of Cordelia...it's so odd. If he was watching Angel? Sure. But Buffy? Cordy barely has a role.

And the over-identification with high school has always puzzled me.
People, I want to say, you do understand that high school is only three to four years out of your entire life? You can forget it. Actually you are going to forget it. Trust me.

(Actually this what I loved about the episode HIM (which everyone in fandom seems to hate, maybe because it did this?) - it really pokes fun at people who can't get past high school. The first five-six episodes of S7 really had fun addressing that.)

[elisi]

I don't understand his love of Cordelia...it's so odd. If he was watching Angel? Sure. But Buffy? Cordy barely has a role.
Cultural coding? She's the Queen of the school, she has to be important.

People, I want to say, you do understand that high school is only three to four years out of your entire life? You can forget it. Actually you are going to forget it. Trust me.
It's such an American thing though, which is why I ignore it almost on principal? Like yellow NY cabs. They're a *thing*

Actually this what I loved about the episode HIM (which everyone in fandom seems to hate, maybe because it did this?) - it really pokes fun at people who can't get past high school. The first five-six episodes of S7 really had fun addressing that.
I'd love Him so much more if it wasn't for that horrible scene with Dawn embarrasing herself. But yes - adore the way early S7 pokes fun at the whole thing. Like 'I signalled her with my eyes' <- the show is very aware of itself and the tropes it plays with. More so than some reviewers...