BtVS: Chosen, Spike, Faith, etc ramblings

[chicken]

Chosen. A small let-down in a way, but only because it is just impossible to top Becoming Part II, or The Gift. I did enjoy it a whole lot though, and the mix of genres was at its finest, just enough comedy to leaven the dough. One thing to wonder about now is whether fannish lust after certain characters might transmute a bit when a character changes as much as some of them have. For example, do I find Faith more or less lustworthy now that she's not so evil? Does her redemption and her increasing care for other humans make her attractive in more ways than one, or do they take away from the hotness of the bad girl persona? I find both theories have merit.

If I weren't a dyke I might ask them same about Spike. I might ask it anyway, actually. I mean, it's Spike... I cry every time I see Buffy treat him with any kind of respect. After the way she treated him like dirt so much before, it's just so heart-rendingly sweet. When she gave him the amulet, called him a champion, when she told him she loved him, even if she really didn't. In "end of days" when they had that last conversation, when he tilted his head just so ... yeah, it all made me cry. And it made him more than just a lust object, both for Buffy and for the viewer. It made him so ... human, so evocative of not just lust anymore, but emotion, emotions.

And it's similar with Faith. In season three, she was just this really sexy bad girl, this steer ya round the curves kinda slayer. And it was easy to hate her for the things she did to Buffy. But ever since "five by five" and "sanctuary", she's started to become more than that. The second she broke down during that fight with Angel, it became easier to sympathize with her, to understand her, and to like her instead of just lust her. And when Wood surprised her into actually kind of well, caring ...

I guess she and Buffy shared a slayer death wish. They cut themselves off from other humans and their own emotions in really different ways, but they shared an essential loneliness. At the end of "Chosen" you kind of get the feeling they might become real baked cookies some day, the kind other humans (not necessarily, in Buffy's case, vampires) might actually really enjoy in more than a one-dimensional lusty way. Not that there's anything wrong with lust. It just isn't all there is, buffyverse or otherwise.

Enough rambling for now. Four edits is really enough for now.

Comments

[keever.livejournal.com]

Somehow I think that Faith could manage to keep her edge, even if she becomes domesticated a bit by our lovely principal. I'd argue that she's already gone through the most dramatic changes in her life on her own accord, in prison. She'll continue to be changed for sure, but mostly in a healing way that reduces psychoness but not sexiness. But that's all optimistic conjecture. I do imagine that we'll see her on Angel again.

As for Spike, I think that the same applies. He may have affected a certain personality after becoming a vamp, but most of that was an act. He came to embody that personality after living it for so long, but Spike's always been a sweet loser underneath it all, and I don't think that mix will ever completely leave, even if he turns out to become human again.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

So Spike is a cover for William, then. Maybe that's why I get all teary every time Buffy calls him "William", like she's seeing through the act.

In the scene earlier in the season between the Spike and Faith, I wonder if any of their hidden or emerging personalities came out in that scene. Now I want to watch it again. They were expressing their bravado on the outside, all flirty and whatever (with the side effect of pissing off Buffy, when she kind of caught them), but if there was also an undercurrent of their other sides, too, I wouldn't be surprised. I wish I could remember that scene better. It was very interesting.

[keever.livejournal.com]

I think that's exactly it -- William wears Spike as a kind of protection. It's sort of like how if you keep pretending that you feel strong, eventually, you start believing it. I think that happened to him over time, but he's still the same at his core.

I really liked that Spike and Faith seemed to know each other immediately, and I think it made sense, since they both essentially created personas to mask their pain and give them strength against what they faced. It was definitely a scene that worked on more than one level, yeah.

[keever.livejournal.com]

Hey, you edited while I was in the middle of commenting. :)

At the end of "Chosen" you kind of get the feeling they might become real baked cookies some day, the kind other humans (not necessarily, in Buffy's case, vampires) might actually really enjoy in more than a one-dimensional lusty way. Not that there's anything wrong with lust. It just isn't all there is, buffyverse or otherwise.

That's precisely why the ending is so moving. It's exactly what I wanted in an ending; I'd been saying that all season. I had predicted that it might come about in another way (Buffy being relieved of her slayerness in some way) but Joss did a much better, much more poignant job of it. Very lovely, and in my opinion, perfect.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I still don't think that it was as good as it could have been, but I'm totally with you on the poignancy. And you're right about the little girl in the baseball hat. Wow, that was just something. And the nicely non-anorexic slayer they showed who seeme to be standing up to her abusive father/uncle/boyfriend/whatever, that little glimpse was pretty interesting, too.

I also have a feeling that after I take a break from it, and maybe review the whole series in a few months with a slightly rested view, I may come to appreciate a lot of things about this season that cannot be appreciated without reviewing the whole series, for context and overall meaning, and with some perspective.

I agree with you that FX having shown "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "Harvest" right before the finale really helped with this, really made that moment with the four of them more circly and meaningful and touching.

[keever.livejournal.com]

And the nicely non-anorexic slayer they showed...

That totally made me smile. I think she was like, the only fat girl we've seen on the show, ever. But hey, they can't tackle everything at once.

I also have a feeling that after I take a break from it, and maybe review the whole series in a few months with a slightly rested view, I may come to appreciate a lot of things about this season that cannot be appreciated without reviewing the whole series, for context and overall meaning, and with some perspective.

That's happened to me with every season, and I expect it will again for me, too.