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Jun. 29th, 2015 12:38 pmI finished watching Buffy season 1.
The one with the invisible girl:
The idea that people not noticing you is enough to make you... they used a lot of rude words for mentally ill, but... The idea people not seeing you is enough to make you violent and vengeful and out of control, that's a classic of literature but kind of rude to humans. I mean, on the internet nobody sees me, yet I remain as polite as I know how to be. I know lots of other people don't, but. I guess the idea is that without feedback our worst impulses can just rage out of control, and as I recall from being a teenager there is no shortage of worst impulses at that age. I guess I have no trouble finding her behaviour plausible, attempted murder and all, because humans. But I do have a problem with them framing it as 'going mad'. What kind of mental illness do they suggest that was? She's just very angry. American language use conflates anger and mental illness, to nobody's benefit. It just seems to be a broken feedback loop, where nobody watching her eventually leads to her not watching herself, just acting on thoughts that would be best set aside. Being mean back to the mean girls, only amplified. Big problem. And not a nice view of humans, to imagine we need outside influence to continue to behave ethically.
More of a comment on Angel though, and vampires in general: they don't have to see themselves in the mirror, they don't do the self examination that would tell them they did wrong.
Cordelia has a different boyfriend in each episode. And the guy who got beat up didn't talk about her in nice ways, or to her much. I can see what she means about lonely+popular, but it seems like it's mostly her doing it? Like she doesn't listen real good neither, or try and connect with people as her real self. Not yet, anyway.
Going to Buffy for help makes her more observant than most of Sunnydale so far. Still mean rude though.
Prophecy Girl:
Makes me think of how young soldiers get recruited. Makes me mad about it too.
Giles deciding to go fight is treated like it's a first, but he's really been right there beside them all season, getting beat up, knocked out, gassed, and fed on by dark powers. There's no respect for his courage, because he fails a lot and doesn't have super strength. But he doesn't have super strength and still keeps trying after repeatedly getting knocked out.
Also Buffy knocking him out is not okay, she has super strength and he could have been crunch pieces, and repeated concussions in one year are super extra dangerous so he's already been messed around a lot.
But it's Buffy being brave by not hiding behind a man, so.
Buffy is brave, Xander is ... consistent in his attitude to vampires, pushing Angel around cause he doesn't like vampires, but also because he doesn't like that Buffy likes him. Willow explaining that she's not okay because it was people she knew in places she knew... was jarring, because Jesse? At the Bronze? I mean it makes sense that everyone has a tipping point, but the ongoing absence of any mention of their dead friend does weird things to the characters.
I mean Cordelia sitting in her car where she used to spend time with her dead boyfriend is more textual evidence of her caring about dead people than we get for the scoobies all season. Bit awkward, if she's supposed to be the mean one.
"You've got fruit punch mouth" is one very weird statement of reclaiming one's power vs the forces of patriarchal dominance, but breaking out of the Master's thrall and kicking his arse is pretty cool.
Buffy season 1 was still pretty good, I wasn't bored and most things bore me, I only fast forwarded through a few bits sometimes instead of the whole season, it is still good to watch.
But sometimes it's a bit beginner-ish and it still has all the clunky bits and gaps which other sources have elaborated on or smoothed over elsewhere.
The one with the invisible girl:
The idea that people not noticing you is enough to make you... they used a lot of rude words for mentally ill, but... The idea people not seeing you is enough to make you violent and vengeful and out of control, that's a classic of literature but kind of rude to humans. I mean, on the internet nobody sees me, yet I remain as polite as I know how to be. I know lots of other people don't, but. I guess the idea is that without feedback our worst impulses can just rage out of control, and as I recall from being a teenager there is no shortage of worst impulses at that age. I guess I have no trouble finding her behaviour plausible, attempted murder and all, because humans. But I do have a problem with them framing it as 'going mad'. What kind of mental illness do they suggest that was? She's just very angry. American language use conflates anger and mental illness, to nobody's benefit. It just seems to be a broken feedback loop, where nobody watching her eventually leads to her not watching herself, just acting on thoughts that would be best set aside. Being mean back to the mean girls, only amplified. Big problem. And not a nice view of humans, to imagine we need outside influence to continue to behave ethically.
More of a comment on Angel though, and vampires in general: they don't have to see themselves in the mirror, they don't do the self examination that would tell them they did wrong.
Cordelia has a different boyfriend in each episode. And the guy who got beat up didn't talk about her in nice ways, or to her much. I can see what she means about lonely+popular, but it seems like it's mostly her doing it? Like she doesn't listen real good neither, or try and connect with people as her real self. Not yet, anyway.
Going to Buffy for help makes her more observant than most of Sunnydale so far. Still mean rude though.
Prophecy Girl:
Makes me think of how young soldiers get recruited. Makes me mad about it too.
Giles deciding to go fight is treated like it's a first, but he's really been right there beside them all season, getting beat up, knocked out, gassed, and fed on by dark powers. There's no respect for his courage, because he fails a lot and doesn't have super strength. But he doesn't have super strength and still keeps trying after repeatedly getting knocked out.
Also Buffy knocking him out is not okay, she has super strength and he could have been crunch pieces, and repeated concussions in one year are super extra dangerous so he's already been messed around a lot.
But it's Buffy being brave by not hiding behind a man, so.
Buffy is brave, Xander is ... consistent in his attitude to vampires, pushing Angel around cause he doesn't like vampires, but also because he doesn't like that Buffy likes him. Willow explaining that she's not okay because it was people she knew in places she knew... was jarring, because Jesse? At the Bronze? I mean it makes sense that everyone has a tipping point, but the ongoing absence of any mention of their dead friend does weird things to the characters.
I mean Cordelia sitting in her car where she used to spend time with her dead boyfriend is more textual evidence of her caring about dead people than we get for the scoobies all season. Bit awkward, if she's supposed to be the mean one.
"You've got fruit punch mouth" is one very weird statement of reclaiming one's power vs the forces of patriarchal dominance, but breaking out of the Master's thrall and kicking his arse is pretty cool.
Buffy season 1 was still pretty good, I wasn't bored and most things bore me, I only fast forwarded through a few bits sometimes instead of the whole season, it is still good to watch.
But sometimes it's a bit beginner-ish and it still has all the clunky bits and gaps which other sources have elaborated on or smoothed over elsewhere.