Any Buffy fans around to discuss some things that have annoyed me on rewatching?

[MrsBertMacklin]

Posting in Chat because this doesn't warrant a permanent thread. I fully admit to overthinking the issues below, I've been binge watching and may have lost perspective.

• Faith was made a slayer when Buffy died the first time. When she dies in Season 5, no mention of a duplicate Slayer, correct?

• The Principal in Season 7 talks to Buffy about how he's looked through her file, why is her response not, 'you creepy fuck, what a breach of privacy, I left school 5 years ago'?

• Neither Buffy or Willow have regular jobs (Willow is never seen in employment). Who pays for Willow's flights to England for rehab, their weapons, various house repairs (don't tell me Buffy could get insurance for accidental damage / civil unrest with her claims history), Dawn's school books etc.?

• When Spike goes to get himself restored to his former self: why exactly does that Demon con him and actually give him his soul? If it was a good demon I could understand it's ultimately setting him on the road to redemption, but it's not.

• Why did Joss Whedon make Angel Irish, when it must have been obvious within 5 syllables that David B's Irish accent was the worst thing in the world?

• Kennedy: I was all for Willow finding someone else after Tara, why on earth did they make that person such an utter knob? Is she meant to have some redeeming features / be perfect for Willow and the actor ballsed it up?

• After Joyce died, why didn't Buffy's dad make a single appearance, surely they could have found some reason / decent plot to make this happen, it's so clanging for me that a parent, no matter how absent, wouldn't even stop by once after his childrens' mother died suddenly.

YY, that is what I meant, exactly.

I love his work, but that makes me really think about it and want it to be better (and more, and not cancelled ...).

Also y'all know Kennedy was a last minute replacement right? They were writing Series 7 on the fly, just getting people back as and when they could. Tara was supposed to make a triumphant return but Benson couldn't make it due to scheduling conflicts (which is what happens when you write a character out/fire them!) so she never came back. Because of this I like to imagine there's a parallel universe where Tara returns and Kennedy fucks off (maybe after an epic witch/slayer fight where Tara pwns her).

Really?! I had no idea of that cassie.

Oh, that's even more sad.

Given the amount of ass-kicking Whedon's female characters normally do, it would be illogical if they were overweight! (thinking in particular of Agents of Shield).

So what is an example of a strong female character done right?

That doesn't follow, noble - buffy has a bodyweight way under what she needs for her students, so do Echo and several others.

which bit jeanne?

Cross post.

Good question - I don't know if there is one. It goes back to what I'm saying - it's hard to write women right.

I think Zoe is probably the closest for me, but I'm still sad he never got much chance to show what he was going to do with her character.

This is the Whedon quote:

I’ve said before, when you declare yourself politically, you destroy yourself artistically,” he said. “Because suddenly that’s the litmus test for everything you do — for example, in my case, feminism. If you don’t live up to the litmus test of feminism in this one instance, then you’re a misogynist. It circles directly back upon you.”

Buffy and Jeanne, I total agree with you on how ingrained misogyny is, especially in popular culture. It's awful really that it is easier to imagine dragons, superheroes, time travel...but we can't get away from assumptions about gender.

Also agree about firefly!

I'd no idea she was a replacement, cassie.

I can't remember who said it, but I agree with this: I don't want strong female characters. Fuck strong female characters. I want well rounded female characters. I want a variety of female characters. I want strong, weak, mean, flawed, sweet, nice, funny, smart, evil. Gimme the gamut of human possibility, not weak/strong.

Any of you ever read any of the essays on slayageonline.com/ ?

There's some really interesting pieces that I suspect a lot of you on this thread will like!

Buffy has super strength! She's a super hero! She doesn't need to look like The Rock because, y'know, magic!

YY, I like that, Cassie.

Aw, did you like her? Sorry if I've ruined her for you! I don't know how far in advance they knew Benson wasn't free (I seem to remember hearing it on the directors commentary, so if anyone wants to fire up the series 7 dvd it's on there somewhere) so Kennedy might have had some degree of planning, but she wasn't the original plan iykwim.

Yes, that's more or less it!

She could also be super strong and fat, but ...

Actually, to be fair, for me it was really important she is tiny and strong. I am about 5'4 and little, and I liked that about the show.

Although in fairness I suppose almost all the potentials were shite, so Kennedy's not exactly alone in her annoyingness!

Tara was going to come back in the s7 episode "conversations with dead people". It was going to be the first evil as Tara talking to willow in the library but Amber Benson didn't want to do it because she didn't want to be evil. So they put Cassie who had died in an earlier episode in her place. I don't think she was going to replace Kennedy.

This is why you have to have lots of women in a film/tv program. If you have just one, the token woman, she is there representing 50% of the population and either she is full of misogynistic stereotypes or she is a 'strong female character'. When you have plenty of women on screen then they can have flaws and interesting quirks, and yes, be 'people'.

Yy that too. Cassie was a good character though I'm glad she came back, briefly.

Some of you may be interested in the 'Dusted' podcast...

I'm going to start listening this evening, really good reviews of it on the Biffy subReddit.