| That's My Take | |||||||||
| My thoughts on the subject of Buffy & Angel |
Buffy "Chosen" 6-8-03 Quick rant -- I thought the finale could have been written better. It was not Mr. Whedon's best work. "The Gift" was Joss' best work. However, it was a fitting ending to "Buffy", but I feel very unfulfilled because the world didn't end. There was no closure! This leaves me feeling almost in limbo. I've been watching the show since the very first ep & have been extremely intrigued with it. & I feel like a lot of issues were never dealt with (hello, "you think you what know you are, what's to come - you haven't even begun") & I'm not confident that there will be a movie to sum up these issues. Overall, I feel 7th season was scattered & unfocused & I was extremely disappointed we never knew the 1st plan & that details to do with it were largely inconsistent. & although it is nice to share the "we beat them" moment - truth is - the bad guy wasn't beaten & just cause they took down the hellmouth doesn't mean the 1st is "squashed" - for all we know, the plan is still on just in a different location - oh, say, like Cleveland. 5-21-03 I wanted to wait a little bit to write something. I'm sure I will add more to this during the summer.... It was a fitting ending. I was a little disappointed. I wanted a finish that would tie up some old issues such as 730 (which must have been the 2-year thing), Doc, Amy, the First's plan. I guess that we will never really know the First's plan has to do with Buffy wanting to take control of the fight &, for the first time, not wait til it happened. I do think that the First's plan had something to do with some of the issues I've discussed in this section but now we will never know. The First is not "squashed" as Buffy said. The First will always exists. But they did take out the hellmouth. I'm surprised with the massive coverup regarding the death of Spike. James Marsters & the WB said Marsters was going over on "Angel". I'm actually sorta glad he's not - just because Spike does not fit into that world. You could almost say that the prophecy about the vampire with a soul was about Spike (without the whole thing about the vampire becoming human at the end) because the First had the evil plan for Spike but he overcame that &, instead, played a pivotal role in the final battle as a good guy. I liked how Joss left the Buffy & Angel relationship open. Very classy. But for the record, we are all cookie dough. We never are finished & if we one day do become baked, I pity that day - cause what is there to look forward to. But I guess I have a different life perspective than a slayer that's been through hell & heaven. I liked the finale. I liked that Buffy has her freedom now, but I expected something bigger. That's okay, though. It leaves a lot of doors open. Giles & everyone will form a new watcher's council now. They'll find all the slayers. That's pretty cool. Everyone stays together - that's beautiful. I see now that "Buffy" has not been a story about a slayer who struggled to have a normal life - not just. It's the story about the slayer who wanted a normal life & who made it possible, who changed the world & saved many lives by making so many other slayers. Think about how many lives will be saved. There will be a slayer in every city. This has so much spin-off possibility it's not even funny... you wouldn't even need old cast members but it's open for any one of them who might want to be in the spinoff. It seems everyone has there own things going on - at least for a little while. .. Andrew is the storyteller - "she died saving my life". See, Caleb was right. Sometimes things can be made a little better with a story. So the death toll is Anya, Spike, & possibly Amanda. That was Amanda who died in the hellmouth, whose face Buffy saw? Ya know, really, Amanda could have been Dawn... Anyway, Buffy gets her rest, her more normal life, & I guess eventually her & Angel will get together again - I guess when Angel's done with his stuff (in how many seasons is that?) & he becomes human. Wow. That's nifty. & Willow's a goddess. For god's sake - Cordelia's a higher power & Willow's a goddess. What are the true odds of all of that. Ya know, someone might start to think "Buffy" was an unrealistic show.... Ya know, though, in the future in the Buffyverse, Buffy would be such a legend. The slayer who died twice & made the number of slayers in the world from one to like hundreds... & I can just hear some slayers in a spinoff pilot now "& I heard she used to date only vampires." 5-13-03 "End of Days" I don't have very much to add to this. It was a more emotional than anything episode - less story, more emotion. Getting Dawn & Xander out of the picture would have been fitting - cause as I've discussed, they're the only ones without sin (Buffy's in there though) - but Dawn had other plans. They're all going to die. That's all I have to say. Next week better be good because it is the end. I promised myself I would cry!!!!! Oh, wait, I have something! I was kinda right! The First's plan is to be become caporeal - but not in its own form - in others, so it can feel, so it can kill. Yup yup. & I bet it wanted Buffy to get that weapon because it wants to get into Buffy, have the ability to wield it, & use it - on humans. So Buffy destroys the world. There's something more, though - a next step. It seems like the next step is having the First go into Buffy, & that she's weak because of being brought back. 5-7-03 "Touched" So, Buffy was right about the vineyard. But I still think she was wrong about all the girls going. It should have been done the way she did it - her alone. The other girls would have just gotten killed. Although, I guess that would have happened either way. & it's NOT Faith's fault. I'm telling you - either way it would have happened. The sad fact is all those girls are going to die. They have to in order for what's going to happen to go down. I don't know if Faith will die - but I'm thinking probably. She's a fugitive & the most fitting thing for her, for Andrew, for Anya, for Willow, for Giles... these are the people who have killed. Giles & Willow maybe don't deserve punishment but when they die - which right now I'm thinking everyone's pretty much going to die - remember how they just made up for something. Everyone in Sunnydale is leaving & I think it's cause there's going to be no more Sunnydale. Buffy is the hellmouth's last guardian. & btw for the record, everyone is so wrong!!!! The stupidest thing to do is to separate from Buffy - but I said that last week, I just wanted to say it again. About Faith - good to see her taking charge, having that confidence in herself, but, true, she is loving it & it is what she wanted, what she's wanted since the beginning - but she does love Buffy. The Mayor appearing to Faith? Well, it brings up an interesting idea. Maybe when the First appears as these people, it is these people. The purely evil & dead people? I'm sure of it. The not evil people? Maybe it's just the evil in them. But I think it really is them. What does that mean for Buffy? I'll discuss that later. The Mayor telling Faith that Buffy's a danger kind is like what Joyce told Dawn earlier this season. So, maybe that was the First. I still think it's up the air. What's interesting is that the First wants everyone against Buffy. The question is: why? What if Buffy does go dark, why would the First want anyone to even know that? Why is anyone but Buffy important to the First? Well, I guess maybe it could be rationalized that the First wanted Faith to leave Buffy out of the Bringer-raid so Buffy wouldn't die during that blow up. Maybe. Maybe there's more to it. The Mayor said to Faith "I think you're doing a bang up job" - nice. & it's interesting the Mayor said about Buffy sticking that knife in Faith's belly. Remember Faith's comatosed dream that woke her up? She was running from Buffy, a knife in Buffy's hand. Faith's earlier dream in that same episode also featured the killer Buffy. Topic change - Buffy down on herself for cutting herself off. She's the slayer. It's not Buffy's fault. It's a part of what she is. What we saw in this episode may be the ending to Spike & Buffy. & that note may be like what Cassie told Spike (the psychic high schooler) - where "she'll tell you" - maybe Buffy told Spike she loved him in that note. Changing topic - the bringer's words - "the legacy of the slayer". They are so stealing the wordage from my fanfic!!!! Oh yeah, I stole their whole characters & world. Right. I have a thought, though, on the warnings about Buffy. It seemed the First wanted Caleb to kill Buffy at the end of this last episode. The First also wants to have form... maybe the plan is for the First to come into being, become flesh in the form of Buffy. & that's why there are the warnings about Buffy. & maybe the reason Buffy to susceptible is because she came back wrong. Notice Spike just walked into the house Buffy was crashing in. Was it technically Buffy's house right then? If so, it confirms again that Buffy isn't human. She lost her humanity when she sacrificed herself for Dawn. & now that she's alive again she's susceptible to get taken over by the First? Is that it? Or will Buffy be fighting herself at the end. I rewatched the entire 7th season & my condensed notes are that the season is about power. It's the running theme. Who has it & who knows how to use it. Note about Buffy's superiority & inferiority complex - that issue is left to be played out. Cassie told Buffy that Buffy would make a difference. Remember that. Remember the hellmouth is being woken up. Willow said she saw it's teeth. & remember that damn cheese guy cause he showed up in the Jonathan/Andrew dreams when they were brought to Sunnydale to uncover the seal. Hey, & 730 - a year is 365 days. Faith told Buffy that there were 2 years before she died. 365 times 2 - 730. Buffy says there is something she is supposed to be doing. Faith says "oh, yeah, miles to go. Little Miss Moffett counting down from 730". Well, I think Glory established Dawn was Miss Moffet (during crazy rants). So that unconscious interaction between Faith & Buffy was referring to Buffy having things to do - or when Buffy wouldn't, when she would die. & she would die in 730 days. &, remember guys, it's the END OF DAYS. The time talked about in Angel's "I Will Remember You". The Oracles said Buffy would die (for a third time is the question). & for those of you that don't watch "Angel" - he's coming to Sunnydale with some kind of mystical device that is "crucial" to this final battle. Read the end of Buffy & Angel fanfic I constantly refer to Past Thoughts | ||||||||
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Angel 5-7-03 "Home" Well, yes, this would be an Angel finale. Of course they couldn't have a big finish like the previous episode. It just wouldn't be an Angel finale. No, Angel finales usually forecast the things to come. Conner. Well... to be a little blunt - it was sort of a cheap way to get Conner out of the picture & off the show. But I must admit I did get a little teary, & it was a fitting thing to do for Conner. Although I don't like the message it sends out - that sometimes things get so bad they can't be recovered. Cause in time Conner could have been recovered. I think I actually stated the opposite earlier in That's My Take - that sometimes things got so bad they couldn't be recovered. That's for situations & relationships not with people themselves. People can always turn it around. Taking over Wolfram & Hart? It's a whole new world. & it goes along with the theme of the season - there is no black & white. It's all gray. Just because they've been handed over an evil law firm doesn't mean they will do evil with it or that they will be corrupted. It's the choices people make. It's how they use it. Moving on... why do I get the feeling that Gunn just got melded with that panther & is now a superhero on his own. Back to the Conner thing - so everyone forgot about him? Even Cordelia? That might be better for her - if she forgot what just happened to her. Well, I guess Conner is another memory Angel alone must bare. Angel loves those temporal fold kind things, huh? It was a bittersweet ending for the Lilah & Wesley storyline. But, yeah, Lilah signed up for that. Does that mean even though Lindsey got out he's still held to the contract? I'm also thinking getting the law firm opens up a window for Lindsey to make some guest appearances. & Angel taking that file & device to Sunnydale? So the device is "crucial to the final battle"? Thank god Angel took that offer! He didn't know how bad things were up in Sunnydale. This time Buffy couldn't have handled that on her own &, well, that would kind of effect the whole world. I love that the WB & UPN put aside their feud for this end of "Buffy". Angel back is the way it has to be. If Cordelia were not in a coma & stuff, it would be fitting for her to go back. Btw, I didn't get back to That's My Take like I promised last week - about Jasmine.... Well, it would make sense that the law firm is now under Angel & co. because it seems they lost their link to the Powers. Afterall, as I'm sure most of us remember, that's what a prophecy once said. First season finale - there was that guy- Vocah - who brought Darla back to fulfill the prophecy that Angel would be cut off from the Powers That Be. &, hello, guys, that just happened - & as a direct result of Darla back. Without Darla we would have no Conner, thus, no Jasmine. & really, it stands to be true that all the visions ever were leading to Jasmine coming into being - & that she was the Power sending them the whole time. I guess it leaves another question of the season - what does that make of the whole show? The whole fight was leading to that so doesn't that make everything devalued somehow? Nah. Ya know, if Jasmine truly was a God it stands to reason that Glory, from Buffy, was perhaps once a Power. But, Jasmine's statement that she was the only Power that cared was probably true - she was probably the only Power that ever cared enough to send visions. But, now Angel doesn't need those anymore. He's got the firm. Oh, & correction from last week, I was thinking Jasmine was saying that Angel was responsible for the apocalypse being all grayish because Angel got her name with good intensions but it had a possible negative consequence - however, upon rewatching she was saying that Angel was causing her to end the world - but Conner took care of that threat. So, that prophecy - unlike the one mentioned earlier - has yet to come about. &, yes, do believe everything you're foretold. Notice Conner toasted with his new family to "family" & Conner says "not this one." Also note that Conner having a normal life does set Darla right. Conner being normal, even though he has actually done some bad things, gives him a chance. It may give Darla that redemption. Over the summer I have to rewatch Season 3 with all those prophecies about Conner & what they said about his birth. I'm sure it falls in line with the Jasmine stuff, I just want to make sure. Read the end of Buffy & Angel fanfic I constantly refer to Past Thoughts | |||||||||
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Both Shows So Angel's big bad brings pure happiness & Buffy's is pure evil & wants to bring pain. Interesting contrast. I was playing around on the Internet looking up name meanings: Alexander comes from the greek word Alexandros & it means "protector of men". Apparently Buffy is a nickname of Elizabeth - interestingly Queen Elizabeth the 1st spent her life alone because she thought it was best for her country, England. Elizabeth comes from Elisheva (name I used in this book I'm trying to write) which means "god's promise" - I did not know when I chose the name that Buffy was a nickname for Elizabeth. But, to "Buffy" it means that Buffy's name means "god's promise". Giles means "SMALL GOAT" (& Joss with his goat fetish) Andrew means "manly". Okay. Kennedy means "helmet head". She proved that one right in "Touched", huh? Back down, girl. Angel's given name - Liam - means "determined protector" in gaelic. Interestingly William (Spike) means the same thing from different (german) origins - "determined protector". & they both are vampires with souls. Cordelia means "heart" Lilah means "delicate" Read the end of Buffy & Angel fanfic I constantly refer to Past Thoughts Below, is a link to the site's posting board. Do you have something to add? Something to counter? I welcome your comments. | |||||||||
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