Rebcake
83p33 comments posted · 2 followers · following 0
12 years ago @ http://markspoils.blog... - Geeky Weekly Funtimez · 1 reply · +2 points
Darn tootin'! Um, if you don't post your thoughtful character critique, doesn't that mean the terrorists have won?
When I'm trying to spark discussion about things that are very nuanced, I've found that sometimes I get better results when I ask questions than make statements. So, there's that, if you want to give it a go.
12 years ago @ http://markspoils.blog... - Geeky Weekly Funtimez · 3 replies · +2 points
I like Spike as a character, and I would love to have seen some actual discussions about his nuances and development. Instead, as usual, Spike defenders will hear NO discussion of the actual nuances and good and bad parts of his character.
I agree that discussions about those nuances are the MOST fun! And Spike can definitely get the woobie treatment, which is boring. But, that's not what I'm seeing in the comments over there. (Not to say they aren't there, just that I haven't seen them. Maybe in rot13 it's more prevalent.) Mostly I see people trying to to have discussions about Buffy that don't make her out to be free of complicated motivations. I don't think looking at Buffy's character from various angles automatically turns Spike into a woobie. They are neither of them woobies! They are fierce and complex! That's why they are such amazing characters.
They BOTH deserve better than to have people browbeating others fans into just one, simple, blanderized "acceptable" interpretation.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 19 replies · +88 points
I've put a lot of effort into being fair to these characters, and I don't think that saying that "Spike is INCREDIBLY inappropriate here" or that "Spike beats her" is particularly fair. Buffy is the instigator of all the violence, all the kisses, and all the sex. Spike is certainly NOT behaving like the calm, comforting confessor he's been since she got back, but Buffy's behavior (name calling, kiss chase, hitting) is just as inappropriate and hurtful to him as anything he is doling out to her. I don't really see either of them being good guys in this scenario, but at least Spike is being somewhat honest. (A highly overrated virtue in my book.)
The point about isolation leading to bad choices is a good one, but Spike is the most isolated person out of the three making the bad choices, and he is the one who has been hidden away in Buffy's invisible closet of kisses, which becomes the closet of house-destroying sex in this episode. Would he be proud to go public with this new almost-a-relationship? Probably. Will Buffy? That's harder to imagine.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 0 replies · +3 points
I WAS HAROLD HILL IN THE MUSIC MAN MY SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, SO SPIKE’S REFERENCE TO “76 TROMBONES” MADE ME WANT TO CURL UP IN A PUDDLE OF KITTENS.
Spike was on a music reference ROLL there at the end!
SPIKE: Finish the big group sing, get your KumbaYa-Ya's out.
It's a mash-up! "Kumbaya" was a Negro spiritual song from the 1930s (probably — provenance unproven) which became the signature song of the folk revival movement of the 1960s. "Get Yer Yas Yas Out" is the title of a Rolling Stones live album released in 1970 which was based on an earlier blues song by Blind Boy Fuller. It might be the most complex cultural reference in all of the Jossverse one-liners. Impressive, and also funny.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 0 replies · +3 points
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 0 replies · +3 points
Heh. Well, they get called lots of things. Here's a fun little fic that explores what they might want to call themselves:
An evil name should be like Lex, or Voldemort, or…
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 1 reply · +11 points
*thunk*
So, is there a fic for that? Why, yes! Many are quite good. Try this one:
All the Difference
Alas, no Spaiku at this time.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 2 replies · +55 points
Dude, there is so much to address in those two lines! So much. Reams of academic inquiries.
My interpretation of the Slayer is that she is at heart a metaphor for the anti-rapist. Girl walks into a dark alley, and walks out at the other end victorious and (mostly) untouched. Rapine is something the Slayer (for the most part) shrugs off — as Buffy did when attacked by Hyena!Xander. Metaphorically speaking, it's what she was designed to prevent and triumph over, along with her other world saving activities. Without the Slayer, you have the status quo, which is rape culture, the world we live in where women and girls (and boys and men) always have to deal with rape as a constant possibility. So it makes sense that with Buffy gone, it is back on the table, just as sexual violence became a very real concern when Buffy underwent the Cruciamentum.
I have more thoughts, but I'll just stop there.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 4 replies · +39 points
Then I remember that there is the Buffybot all over the place! *facepalm* Why is the Bot so f-ing perfect? Am I the only one who forgets that she is not being played by a robot? All hail SMG. She doesn't even have to cry to knock it out of the park.
12 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Buffy th... · 0 replies · +15 points
I think I'm gonna cry. Again. Not prepared. Not fair.