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idle thought #342
Mar. 9th, 2022 08:43 pmsneaking this into the queue. reading about joyce for Stardust Legacy, someone said that she's more plot device than character because Whedon didn't want to write the parents but thought it'd be weird if he didn't since we see a lot of Buffy's home life.
Insert obligatory warning that in this house we treat Whedon as thoroughly and utterly jossed (i.e. rendered completely irrelevant because of word of Whedon).
Ignoring the 'you could write an emancipated minor, you could write an adult, you could write a bunch of orphans in an orphanage' decisions that he could have easily made for that effect, but I suspect what he really wanted was a shorthand for 'normal family dynamics that lead to Normal Kid *insert vaguely ableist thoughts here*' and didn't want to deal with Consequences as those are, like, some of the least favorite things, seriously, he hates writing character arc and growth and yes I'm still bitter about him regressing Tony's character arc and having him and Pepper break up offscreen because he didn't like the ship...
So, ignore the fact that all choices have Consequences and you really should be trying to think about those as a writer and pay attention to your own continuity (and others', if you're playing in their playground). Ignore the fact that emancipation is a thing we never see in fiction so it'd be an interesting choice to take, or that orphans is a little cliche but you could've done interesting stuff with that.
There was a perfectly acceptable, perfectly interesting, perfectly easy story decision sitting in front of him and he didn't take it.
Buffy really is Giles' daughter. The better, less cliche, more interesting route here is biologically, and he's a Watcher, and she knows at least a little about what he does, but then she gets Called and suddenly they're both having to deal with that. From what we currently see of the Council, they *probably* wouldn't allow him to act as her Watcher, given how upset they are about him being unrelated and treating her like his daughter, but.
Maybe they keep him in line with threats on her life. Maybe we work up the wetworks team much earlier. Maybe we get some angst from Buffy about how he's stopped treating her like his daughter and become more distant once she got Called, only she finds out they've been threatening her life this whole time and he's been trying to protect her the best way he can.
The more cliche option involves fridging Joyce at the beginning of the series, so Giles adopts her. I'm against this because fridging is so overdone (and offensive because it's overdone), but it's an option, too.
Now I'm kind of mad that I have a more creative imagination here, because actual parent Giles would've been awesome and I feel like we were robbed.
Insert obligatory warning that in this house we treat Whedon as thoroughly and utterly jossed (i.e. rendered completely irrelevant because of word of Whedon).
Ignoring the 'you could write an emancipated minor, you could write an adult, you could write a bunch of orphans in an orphanage' decisions that he could have easily made for that effect, but I suspect what he really wanted was a shorthand for 'normal family dynamics that lead to Normal Kid *insert vaguely ableist thoughts here*' and didn't want to deal with Consequences as those are, like, some of the least favorite things, seriously, he hates writing character arc and growth and yes I'm still bitter about him regressing Tony's character arc and having him and Pepper break up offscreen because he didn't like the ship...
So, ignore the fact that all choices have Consequences and you really should be trying to think about those as a writer and pay attention to your own continuity (and others', if you're playing in their playground). Ignore the fact that emancipation is a thing we never see in fiction so it'd be an interesting choice to take, or that orphans is a little cliche but you could've done interesting stuff with that.
There was a perfectly acceptable, perfectly interesting, perfectly easy story decision sitting in front of him and he didn't take it.
Buffy really is Giles' daughter. The better, less cliche, more interesting route here is biologically, and he's a Watcher, and she knows at least a little about what he does, but then she gets Called and suddenly they're both having to deal with that. From what we currently see of the Council, they *probably* wouldn't allow him to act as her Watcher, given how upset they are about him being unrelated and treating her like his daughter, but.
Maybe they keep him in line with threats on her life. Maybe we work up the wetworks team much earlier. Maybe we get some angst from Buffy about how he's stopped treating her like his daughter and become more distant once she got Called, only she finds out they've been threatening her life this whole time and he's been trying to protect her the best way he can.
The more cliche option involves fridging Joyce at the beginning of the series, so Giles adopts her. I'm against this because fridging is so overdone (and offensive because it's overdone), but it's an option, too.
Now I'm kind of mad that I have a more creative imagination here, because actual parent Giles would've been awesome and I feel like we were robbed.
