Buffy season 6 up through Dead Things
Aug. 21st, 2015 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethGone is less fun when you've heard James Marsters was not in fact having fun.
Rewatching in order means rewatching Doublemeat Palace. Other than 'I can get money' explaining the plot in later episodes, there's not a whole lot worth watching in Doublemeat Palace.
Having Anya's demon friend point out the thing where Xander criticises Anya and it's not cool kind of... if the vengeance demon is saying it then it's easier to dismiss. I don't think it should be dismissed.
And then there's 'Dead Things', which is really difficult to watch and super dark.
Two different layers of difficult, both violence against romantic/sexual partners: Andrew, Jonathan and especially Warren with Katrina, and Buffy with Spike.
Katrina turning around and telling them "This isn't some fantasy. It's not a game, you freaks. It's rape."
That's such an important line.
Knowing that the BBC cut it underlines that it is such an important line.
It makes me feel ill, not just to watch, because that was a pretty well balanced scene if they were going to go there, but to know how many other shows have used similar devices and just... not understood that one crucial word. Having heard from the writers, they didn't understand. They use magic or perfume or pollen or drugs, but they don't get it. So it's really difficult to watch because of knowing how many people are out there just being Andrew and Jonathan in that scene, completely shocked that making someone their slave to have sex with her is actually rape. That line needs to be in more things more often, it's important here.
Warren though, you get the feeling Warren knew perfectly well. He's been a step more evil than the other two. He was planning to kill Buffy in Gone and thought a dead Slayer was a solution, not a problem. So now there's a dead girlfriend, is he heart broken? No, his only problem is disposal. So he 'solves' that problem by making Buffy feel responsible.
Warren is slime and I look forward to the end of the season even while not wanting Willow to do that.
Buffy and Spike though... Buffy bothers me because of all the things she doesn't seem to understand. It's not just Spike ignoring the no. In 'Gone' when he tries to send her away she keeps being all over him. Those two are epically terrible with the words like no, and meaning them, and listening to them.
But here, Spike is doing his evil-and-soulless best by her. He thinks she's killed someone, he tries to protect Buffy by disposing of the corpse. And it's slightly embarrassing that this centuries old serial killer can't competently do that. Guess he never minded who found them before.
He's a creep, he's using the abuser tricks of nobody else will accept you, he's trying to persuade Buffy she's all kinds of messed up, primarily because everyone including Buffy has been saying only the very messed up would go anywhere near him.
But at the same time he's doing his best by her and it's all messed up.
So in the alley by the police station, he grabs her and throws her around, and that's clearly wrong. I got annoyed enough at Riley about the arm grabs, and he didn't do the throwing part. Spike shouldn't throw Buffy around.
But Buffy epically beat the shit out of him, and left him unable to so much as roll over, let alone defend himself, or get out of the sun should it rise any time soon. He probably got better fairly swiftly, but she didn't hang around for that. She beat the crap out of him.
And what's she all messed up about by the end of the episode?
"Why do I let Spike do those things to me?"
So we've seen Spike, we've heard Buffy say that she beats him up a lot and that's like third base to him, we've heard him this episode be entirely happy about the bite marks and her acting like an animal, and even while she's beating the crap out of him in that alley he's all "Put it all on me." He's letting her. He's not fighting back. And to some extent he's enjoying it, or at least enjoying feeling useful and connected, cause there she is acting just as messed up as him.
But you know what it's not?
It is not Spike doing things to her.
Even with the handcuffs, Buffy rubs her wrists like he puts them on her even though she says 'never' to his 'trust me', but then she dreams of putting them on him. And we don't see them use them outside the dream.
It's not Spike doing things to her, unless she's lumping in stuff like making her feel or actually blaming him for making her hit him.
And there's no 'let' about it. She pounces him whenever we see a sex scene. Active participant.
Sex or violence or their usual messed up mix of both, they're both doing and being done to. She pretty much lets him hit her, in that she hasn't staked him yet. And he lets her hit him, cause we've seen him fight for real and this ain't it.
He's her willing punching bag, but when she's getting upset with her friend, "Why do I let Spike do those things to me?"
The physically abusive aspects of their relationship are part of what makes her feel better. He knows it and lets her. But she is sitting there putting it all on him.
It makes me very unhappy with her, and potentially with the writers, because the hell? Did they not see what they'd done?
And all that stuff about being dead inside, an evil thing, they give each other the same chat there too. Same words thrown back and forth. And for Spike it's his chance to get close and he takes it. For Buffy though, she hasn't got his excuse, not a vampire, has a soul, and she's still using him, beating him up and calling him many ugly things.
Tara kind of agrees it's okay to use him, but Tara parsed the silences as about sex, not... all of that. Having meaningless sex because sex is fun, fair enough. Beating up your sexual partners far past the point of safety is not okay.
But, he does agree to it. So it's just many layers of messed up.
And then Buffy sobbing on Tara's lap "don't forgive me"
because that's part of what she gets from Spike, being told she's bad wrong
and it matches how she's feeling bad and feeling like she's in hell being punished.
Depression lies. Metaphor version.
It seems like nobody is answering for exactly the right things, the story goes sideways, blame goes all slithery, and it's kind of ugly.
The geek trio as dark mirrors for the scoobies? Always hurt the one you love? Yeah, that's ugly matching.
I don't know why this is the story we got. Interesting, yeah, but...
Why mess her up this precise way? Fighting depression, sure, that's cool, I liked Gone for that, but all this mess of hitting people or magic forcing them, that's misuse of their power, so why is that the important story? An important story I'll grant, but, I still feel like this show about women with power has problems with women with power. Hence the repeated stories of men feeling useless or now being useful as punching bags. It's messed up.
I think I'm looking forward to being done with this season.
Rewatching in order means rewatching Doublemeat Palace. Other than 'I can get money' explaining the plot in later episodes, there's not a whole lot worth watching in Doublemeat Palace.
Having Anya's demon friend point out the thing where Xander criticises Anya and it's not cool kind of... if the vengeance demon is saying it then it's easier to dismiss. I don't think it should be dismissed.
And then there's 'Dead Things', which is really difficult to watch and super dark.
Two different layers of difficult, both violence against romantic/sexual partners: Andrew, Jonathan and especially Warren with Katrina, and Buffy with Spike.
Katrina turning around and telling them "This isn't some fantasy. It's not a game, you freaks. It's rape."
That's such an important line.
Knowing that the BBC cut it underlines that it is such an important line.
It makes me feel ill, not just to watch, because that was a pretty well balanced scene if they were going to go there, but to know how many other shows have used similar devices and just... not understood that one crucial word. Having heard from the writers, they didn't understand. They use magic or perfume or pollen or drugs, but they don't get it. So it's really difficult to watch because of knowing how many people are out there just being Andrew and Jonathan in that scene, completely shocked that making someone their slave to have sex with her is actually rape. That line needs to be in more things more often, it's important here.
Warren though, you get the feeling Warren knew perfectly well. He's been a step more evil than the other two. He was planning to kill Buffy in Gone and thought a dead Slayer was a solution, not a problem. So now there's a dead girlfriend, is he heart broken? No, his only problem is disposal. So he 'solves' that problem by making Buffy feel responsible.
Warren is slime and I look forward to the end of the season even while not wanting Willow to do that.
Buffy and Spike though... Buffy bothers me because of all the things she doesn't seem to understand. It's not just Spike ignoring the no. In 'Gone' when he tries to send her away she keeps being all over him. Those two are epically terrible with the words like no, and meaning them, and listening to them.
But here, Spike is doing his evil-and-soulless best by her. He thinks she's killed someone, he tries to protect Buffy by disposing of the corpse. And it's slightly embarrassing that this centuries old serial killer can't competently do that. Guess he never minded who found them before.
He's a creep, he's using the abuser tricks of nobody else will accept you, he's trying to persuade Buffy she's all kinds of messed up, primarily because everyone including Buffy has been saying only the very messed up would go anywhere near him.
But at the same time he's doing his best by her and it's all messed up.
So in the alley by the police station, he grabs her and throws her around, and that's clearly wrong. I got annoyed enough at Riley about the arm grabs, and he didn't do the throwing part. Spike shouldn't throw Buffy around.
But Buffy epically beat the shit out of him, and left him unable to so much as roll over, let alone defend himself, or get out of the sun should it rise any time soon. He probably got better fairly swiftly, but she didn't hang around for that. She beat the crap out of him.
And what's she all messed up about by the end of the episode?
"Why do I let Spike do those things to me?"
So we've seen Spike, we've heard Buffy say that she beats him up a lot and that's like third base to him, we've heard him this episode be entirely happy about the bite marks and her acting like an animal, and even while she's beating the crap out of him in that alley he's all "Put it all on me." He's letting her. He's not fighting back. And to some extent he's enjoying it, or at least enjoying feeling useful and connected, cause there she is acting just as messed up as him.
But you know what it's not?
It is not Spike doing things to her.
Even with the handcuffs, Buffy rubs her wrists like he puts them on her even though she says 'never' to his 'trust me', but then she dreams of putting them on him. And we don't see them use them outside the dream.
It's not Spike doing things to her, unless she's lumping in stuff like making her feel or actually blaming him for making her hit him.
And there's no 'let' about it. She pounces him whenever we see a sex scene. Active participant.
Sex or violence or their usual messed up mix of both, they're both doing and being done to. She pretty much lets him hit her, in that she hasn't staked him yet. And he lets her hit him, cause we've seen him fight for real and this ain't it.
He's her willing punching bag, but when she's getting upset with her friend, "Why do I let Spike do those things to me?"
The physically abusive aspects of their relationship are part of what makes her feel better. He knows it and lets her. But she is sitting there putting it all on him.
It makes me very unhappy with her, and potentially with the writers, because the hell? Did they not see what they'd done?
And all that stuff about being dead inside, an evil thing, they give each other the same chat there too. Same words thrown back and forth. And for Spike it's his chance to get close and he takes it. For Buffy though, she hasn't got his excuse, not a vampire, has a soul, and she's still using him, beating him up and calling him many ugly things.
Tara kind of agrees it's okay to use him, but Tara parsed the silences as about sex, not... all of that. Having meaningless sex because sex is fun, fair enough. Beating up your sexual partners far past the point of safety is not okay.
But, he does agree to it. So it's just many layers of messed up.
And then Buffy sobbing on Tara's lap "don't forgive me"
because that's part of what she gets from Spike, being told she's bad wrong
and it matches how she's feeling bad and feeling like she's in hell being punished.
Depression lies. Metaphor version.
It seems like nobody is answering for exactly the right things, the story goes sideways, blame goes all slithery, and it's kind of ugly.
The geek trio as dark mirrors for the scoobies? Always hurt the one you love? Yeah, that's ugly matching.
I don't know why this is the story we got. Interesting, yeah, but...
Why mess her up this precise way? Fighting depression, sure, that's cool, I liked Gone for that, but all this mess of hitting people or magic forcing them, that's misuse of their power, so why is that the important story? An important story I'll grant, but, I still feel like this show about women with power has problems with women with power. Hence the repeated stories of men feeling useless or now being useful as punching bags. It's messed up.
I think I'm looking forward to being done with this season.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 06:21 pm (UTC)Also, re. Buffy and Spike, then you have read