S3 wrap-up

[snick_backup]

Yes, I'm back. Two thoughts:

1. Buffy and Faith are my favorite thing about S3. I love the early-season tension ("Oh, look, now she's getting along with my fries."), the mid-season kinship ("Tell me you don't get off on this." "Didn't suck.") and united front against Wesley ("New Watcher." "Screw that." "Now why didn't I say that?"), the late season high-conflict:

FAITH: "You know, I come to Sunnydale, I'm a Slayer, I do my job kicking ass better than anyone, and what do I hear about, everywhere I go? Buffy. So I slay, and behave, and do the good-little-girl routine, and who does everyone thank? Buffy. [...] You get the Watcher, you get the mom, you get your little Scooby Gang, what do I get? Jack squat!

I love that the writers used Faith to explore potential outcomes of Slayer power, since they were apparently unwilling to use Buffy herself (see "Ted" And "Living Conditions" for muffed chances).

The one thing I don't like is when the writers needed that high conflict, they used Angel to get it. So happens I hate, loathe, and merrily stomp on love triangles - one of my tics - and of all the tension between them and all their differences, the fact that they end up fighting over Angel, whom Faith got over pretty quickly after "Enemies" and only wanted in the first place because he was Buffy's, and whom Buffy wasn't even dating (or at least, she hadn't been until Angel broke up with her) is just a cheap shot. Yanno, we wimmens do sometimes fight over something other than boys. Blech.

2. I'm now into S4 with the housemate, and man, did things change over that summer hiatus. Willow, especially - love the haircut, could do without the attitude. I never really like her again. What happened that summer? When did Willow's self-assurance tip over into brattiness and self-centeredness? And why the big push to get Buffy to sleep with Parker? What, now that Willow's had sex she's feels comfortable directing everyone else's sex lives?

Otherwise, it's just a more adult show from here on out, with dirtier jokes and more of them, not to mention the general sexathon that is S4. (Between Adam, the overabundance of sex, and Restless, which I found bewildering the first time through, I nearly gave up after S4. I'm, uh, glad I didn't.)

Comments

[snickfic]

It seems worthy of a fic. Willow's not a character I've ever written much. But maybe someone out there wrote one? Maybe even one that isn't, for once all about Teh Sex (although considering her attitude in "Harsh Light of Day," it'd probably need to be at least partly about sex).

And, yeah. She goes to college and all that sweet spazziness is just cover for All-About-Me Girl. Like in Fear Itself: "I am not your sidekick!"

[aadler]

I, like you, was put-off by Willow’s college transformation, and — though she still had the occasional good moment in the following seasons — found her increasingly unlikable thereafter. (In fact, I was deeply disturbed by her behavior and attitudes well before the ‘Dark Willow’ characteristics became obvious in canon.)

I offered some opinions of my own regarding this shift in her outlook and behavior in “None So Blind” (Part 5 in particular), and a more detailed treatment in the last chapter of “the Still, Small Voice”. (Neither of those, however, address her new meddlesomeness in Buffy’s sex life.)

[snickfic]

I don't think I became conscious of disliking her until sometime in S6, or maybe late S5, but I lost all sympathy for her pretty early on in S4. I look at it now and see all the set up for the Dark Willow arc. It's very consistent and convincing, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.