beccaelizabeth | Buffy season 2

I watched Inca Mummy Girl, Reptile Boy, and Halloween.

One classic out of three.

So, Inca Mummy Girl has problems. I nearly skipped it. But it's the first time we meet Oz, and Jonathan. And as a weird horror in high school story, dead girl drains life out of victims seems solid. It links up with Buffy as the Chosen One getting killed and then coming back to life to do more stuff. There's even a CPR/kissing connection for the way the girl steals their lives. It's just on the metaphor level that it goes to pieces. Like, either there isn't one, or it's creepy. What are the options? Beware pretty girls for they drain the life out of you just so they can stay alive? Although actually her alternative wasn't death, it was complete paralysis while being aware of everything around her, which seems epic more suck. And is another 'disability that reacts by passing it on' story, which, creepy. Or maybe it's a 'beware exchange students because sex equals death'. Which, well, ew? Do high school guys really need warning that girls might suck the life out of them?

Last time Xander's epic terrible dating choices came up the other level of story was about older people preying on teenagers because olders would know there was something wrong with them. A basic you're not that cool they're just that creepy. Reptile Boy does the same thing with a slightly closer age group and added alcohol. And sure, a lot of episodes are basic vampire badness, but having become accustomed to look for another level, it seems this one is creepy. Girls trying to free themselves equals danger for guys? Not cool.

Reptile Boy was so obvious that the Buffy horror level seemed superfluous. Like, frat guys drugging girls to sacrifice to their giant snake? Subtle. :eyeroll: Lampshaded with teh "the words let that be a lesson are a tad redundant", which was still funny.

And through all this, Angel. Who is always the comparison. Older but looks younger and feeds on others to live, albeit with handy bagged donations these days. And shouldn't he be hanging out with people closer to his age? What's with him that he's all about high school girls? So there's all these layers of comparison that say he's creepy. And this viewing through I'm not really feeling the compare/contrast. Even when he goes all grrr face because Buffy is in danger, it's... for one, a guy whose first response is violent? When he gets annoyed at the girl? Yeah, that doesn't go well. Also, he broke into the frat house to save her, but Willow had to run back and forth because Xander and Angel were beating up guys rather than actually rescuing girls, with Xander yelling 'that's for the lipstick' etc, so it's more about answering a guy's disrespect of him, kind of like next episode where he was annoyed at Buffy rescuing him from mundane threat because his reputation. Angel just... got into fighting and wasn't quick at the rescue part? That's not super useful. So in the way Buffy and Cordelia treat him, Angel is the superhero hunk, but in what he actually does he's actually less helpful than Xander? Who is at least there more often and tries more often. And then we know how things will go with Buffy later. So the times when he turns up all frowny and telling Buffy to avoid him because he won't be able to resist her, that's just creepy, he should be entirely able to resist, she's sixteen and he's 240ish, he should have developed control by now. And they barely talk, which Buffy comments on, so it's not just what the camera shows us. And then there's kissing. So I'm not reading it as romantic even within the text, he's a creepy older guy who should know better.

YMMV obviously, I'm actually kind of surprised how that feels so definitive on this viewing, ship them if you want, I just, I can't see it as healthy or romantic this time. He's just a pretty mystery who hits things sometimes, it's not like later when he shares a life with people.

... I may ship him with Cordelia later, who at this point has spent almost as much time with him, just in a more being-rescued context. Destined! :eyeroll:

They are all so young, it feels different from here.

So, then, Halloween.

What I mostly learned about Halloween is I still have every word Ethan Rayne ever says memorised.

I'm reasonably sure I've run out of new things to say about Halloween.

His ritual trappings are more theatrical and varied than straight up about Janus. Business cards with the theatre faces on them have more to do with that statue than the roman god of doors. He kneels on an 8 point star with a circle around it and another in the center, not a chaos star like I've got icons of, more like I've seen as the wheel of the year or a symbol of certain ancient goddesses. Google mentioned christian baptism too? And he's wearing a robe I've seen in christain clergy apparel stores. Mix and match. Chaos magic.

I still really like his voice.

And how he is with 'Ripper' makes both of them so much more interesting.

I know what canon did with them, but it wasn't half way enough, there's tons of story there.

The insides to outsides spell... Buffy wanting to be a normal girl as if that doesn't include fighting to protect people, and that line in Inca Mummy Girl where Giles is telling her she's got a duty and how many people her age can say that? And she says like "foreign or domestic. how about none?" Except actually? Even domestic, I'm pretty sure there's others who have problems of the fighty kind. Certainly globally. So often Buffy trying to keep her hair nice and go on dates is depicted as this whole different life from her fighting, like normal girls means that particular model of femininity, and it's kind of grating. We don't get many different ways of being a girl in this show. I mean, we get Willow, but like in this Halloween dress up it seems like her not being all makeup and sexy clothes for the boys is her being too scared? It's not so much like that's just a different model.

Like, I had a plan for a sex change story where Buffy gets a spell to be a guy, because whoever casts the spell reckons then losing her Slayer powers and being really distracted. And she has to wait out the end of the spell, or they can't find the thing to reverse it, whatever, so she starts trying to blend in as a guy so nothing will notice she's vulnerable. But she doesn't do generic guy, she copies the different guys. Being a mini Giles wouldn't exactly be inconspicuous, being tiny Angel would be sort of creepy while they're dating because turning into a clone of your boyfriend is a bit not good, being a smaller Xander would be super ordinary and very cheap, but she ends up miserable of it. Clothes, so shapeless! Hair, so ignored! How do guys do it? So then Oz turns up and he's got hair dye, he's got nail varnish, he's got a general sense of zen about what being a guy involves. Buffy can copy that and hang out with the music people and that'll work out.

So, okay, Xander gets changed, who does he copy? And how does it work out different?

In costumes, there's three different Sexy Halloween models, with the only dissent being because no confidence, and when she gets confident at the end she attracts a suitable boy. Woohoo, reward.

It's like how stores in adult sizes have sexy versions, sexy versions, also sexy versions. Not much variety.

So Cordelia and Buffy and Willow are three different ways to do femme, but they're not a very wide range. While the guys seem to have more?

So Halloween this time... on top of Inca Mummy Girl and 'what kind of girl only packs boys clothes' actually being a clue she's a monster, urgh, now I've thought this context that's creepy... it just seems to have all the problems commercial Halloween costumes tend to have.

And to be fair it's shown it's a problem, but it's made out like it's an individual aspiration problem, like the problem is girls wanting to be empty and pretty. Which, no? They just bought what the shop was selling.

I've long thought that if I had the chance to dress up for that particular Halloween I'd dress as Ethan Rayne. Maybe Indiana Jones, if I needed a classic the store would actually have. Or Han Solo.

So, you know, not so much going with the femme options there.

I've been noticing Willow clothes cause they have a lot of rainbows. Like, a lot. Her jumper has rainbow stripes (want) and her backpack has rainbow straps and a rainbow on the back (want want). She covers up at all times, which seems like a sensible precaution for a pale redhead in California. Don't know how that works for temperatures. But she seems comfy.

Buffy wears dungarees sometimes, but usually on the way to wearing something else. Short skirts happen a lot more often.

Cordelia is meant to be an extreme, dressing sexy and expensive at all times.

but honestly I can't always tell the difference. I mean, there's differences, but from here reading them is not obvious.

There's a lot of layers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that are about how women are always in danger, and guys are in danger quite a lot. Different reasons, but horror show = danger everywhere. As yet there's a limited set of solutions for the problem. Buffy hits it until it stays down. ("I don't always use violence!" "The important thing is you believe that.") Willow looks stuff up until Giles figures out how to fix things. Cordelia screams, which is a legit approach that assumes that help is both in ear shot and likely to be on your side, hence more useful to those with privilege. But for the personal life stuff? Dating is always danger, so what approaches do we get? Well a whole lot of epic fails, so far. Dating seems to be mosty a Don't.

Buffy has people she talks to, people she fights alongside, and people she hides from and lies to a lot. Dating someone in that last category is a nope, puts them in danger. But the way the first two categories only kind of overlap is interesting. Like, Xander is right there fighting and being brave a lot? But Buffy doesn't feel for him. She feels for Angel, who she knows so little about he's basically a blank page right now. Kind of a problem.

I'm not sure how well that ever gets resolved, since Angel goes away and they spend so much time angsty I'm not sure they ever do get to know each other.

I'm waffling at length about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Guess I still like this show :-)