A conversation that needed to happen for me to see Riley as a 'great guy', like this episode seemed to want:
RILEY: Hows your Mom doing? OR: I’m sorry about your Mom, how are you doing, how's Dawn?
Or maybe just "I'm sorry" in general, from him not her. There was nothing that she had to apologise to him for. He may have spent a year mourning the relationship he threw away because she wasn't 'giving enough', but she never even got a chance to mourn all of her losses.
I think it's just about inertia and the grind of living. Buffy and Willow have both made resolutions, Buffy wants to live and Willow not to use magic, but now they have to actually DO it, every minute of every day.
yus you are right, I was so busy thinking all kinds of complex meta-like thinkings that I completely forgot about it, thus nullifying my point. Oops.
That is very well put, and how I feel too.
OOOH I said almost exactly the same thing in my 'wrecked' post about the gender flip. I would love some links to read more about it! (I have seen the whole thing).
These are all brilliant points! I think by 'mistaking' I meant using an obvious metaphor where perhaps they could have been subtler and thus making an analogy that doesn't quite fit. I'm having trouble articulating what I mean.
Giles and Ethan weren't lesbians? ;)
I like your thoughts about magic and am willing to believe that some spells could be addictive, or if abused it could be addictive, but not all magic.
Yeah sorry, I massively over simplified it because I wanted to go on and talk about the Buffy/Willow parallel and the themes. In hindsight that may have been disrespectful to such a heavy subject, sorry.
In our teens we all think we would NEVER be the ‘kind of person’ who would….. And then your 20s. What an accurate depiction of the struggles and themes of your early twenties! The hardest thing in this world is to live in it, indeed! I think the theme of season 6 could be said to be ‘failure to understand, accept, and respect yourself and others as you/they are, darkness and all, because of your previously held convictions about how you/things SHOULD be’.
There are many different/opposing perspectives which are equally valid readings of the ‘text’ this season, many layers, and it makes people fight and miss what the show is trying to do if you rigidly defend only one. We can all learn to see more depth in the show if we are open to learning from each other’s readings and considering the perspectives of each character a valid interpretation of the situation (yes even Spike’s) even if we don’t agree with their behaviour. I think the show is asking us to have compassion for it’s characters, even in all their fucked up, self-destructive, possibly abusive, glory. They are certainly having a hard enough time having compassion and understanding for themselves and others when they discover that not all circumstances in life fit your previously established understanding when you actually experience them.
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Medley