Okay, Scratch That

[thedeadlyhook]

Well, for a brief instant there I had an ending up for my Spuffyficathon piece. Hopefully no one read it, because I decided I hated it and it needs major revision. Apologies. (grumbles, goes back to drawing board.)

Comments

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Whew! Thanks for the nice long analysis! I love this stuff...

I can absolutely agree with all of this in theory, particularly the description of S6 as post-traumatic stress. S7 however, is a little tougher to explain, although I'd blame execution of the ideas more than the concepts - I would particularly point accusing fingers at confusing early and middle stretches of the season that failed to maintain a sense of urgency on Buffy's part - there was often a rather rather dangerous level of froofery in her behavior at times, especially in regards to the likes of her counseling job, Principal Wood, etc. Had she been played as more consistently strung out during the season, I think your reading of her character (which I do think was the one we were meant to have) would have come across more clearly. But silent misery is a difficult dramatic proposition to start with, and in this case, I don't think it worked very well - we had to read between the lines on Buffy's actions far too much for my taste in S7, and I would have given a lot to see Buffy having a slow unravel before finally blowing her top in "Get in Done." As-is, she comes across (to me) as PMSing. I blame poor plotting.

But, on the brighter note of a post-season Buffy/Spike pairing, perhaps I should have specified that I could see Buffy arriving at a better place from all this, but probably not Spike. He's the damaged one now, all too willing to give up on the idea that Buffy would ever really care about him (e.g., "I never had a chance with her anyway" from "The Girl in Question"). Intentionally or not, I think she really trained him too well in the you're-not-worthy school.

That said, I've read some post-season reunion fics that are complex enough to work for me. fer1213's "Third Chances" is currently holding my attention on that score, because she has the characters actually yell at each other about their issues, of which - and I think we're in agreement here - there are still plenty.