Dash Commentary
Aug. 26th, 2017 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamer First, I'd like to say that I think it's fun/funny that most of my important Buffy news comes in the form of the Sunnydale Herald.
Now, to get down to business:
The news about Joss Whedon...actually doesn't change a thing for me in terms of Buffy, other than freaking me out a little. Why?
I've always hated Dollhouse. I found it a little interesting, plotwise, and it's the type where it starts conversations, which is occasionally an important service, but unlike my friends who loved it just like the rest of his works I actually found myself dreading the weekly meet-ups to watch it and counting down the episodes until we could move on to something else. I hate Whedon's work in Marvel, aside from a few scenes, because it was his touch that (maybe) paved the way to Self-Righteous Asshole Steve Rogers, which just...no. (And might have led to Hydra!Cap which is still an abomination unto mankind.) I hate that the Avengers movie ignored any character development in Tony, which is one of the biggest reasons I love Iron Man 3. I suspect he was behind the decision to break Tony and Pepper up, which--okay, Tony's not one to stay in relationships, usually, but this is freaking Pepper and do we need to have a discussion about a) character development and b) how WE DON'T SEE ENOUGH HEALTHY LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS IN TV BECAUSE DAMMIT WATCHING AN AWESOME COUPLE HAVE FIGHTS AND MAKE UP AND DEAL WITH LIFE'S SHENANIGANS TOGETHER IS JUST AS INTERESTING AND IN SOME CASES IS MORE SO THAN ALL THE ANGST 'LET'S BREAK THEM UP' THINGS?? Why? I love Wash/Zoe and we don't see much of them as a couple being all couply and I suspect personal issues lead to him having issues writing healthy long term relationships, but I digress.
The point is, I've never worshiped the ground beneath the man's feet. I've never seen him as The Last Great Feminist, or whatever he's trying to brand himself. I've never just loved his works unconditionally. Buffy and Angel and Firefly are problematic works. I love them, but there are just some really flawed parts of them, and I've never ignored that. All the characters do stupid things. And sometimes the stupid things are things people would do, and are in character, and the characters grow past them, so as dumb as they are, I don't retcon those. And some things, I thought, were written mostly for the angst or the CWness of it all, but we're learning now that maybe they were written for darker reasons, maybe.
I've always thought that the worst parts of Xander are Joss Whedon projecting. That hasn't changed.
I love the dialogue. That hasn't changed. I love huge parts of it, the show in general (obviously), but the parts I don't like haven't changed, nor have the things Whedon has written that I don't like.
The thing is, shows especially are huge creative endeavors brought to life by a huge group of people. Whedon's not responsible for every single awesome thing on Buffy and maybe his bad contributions outweigh the good. But you know what? There were awesome actors, and awesome script writers, and the whole freakin' fandom, and we made it our own, so you know what, Whedon? You can't take the sky from me.
Now, to get down to business:
The news about Joss Whedon...actually doesn't change a thing for me in terms of Buffy, other than freaking me out a little. Why?
I've always hated Dollhouse. I found it a little interesting, plotwise, and it's the type where it starts conversations, which is occasionally an important service, but unlike my friends who loved it just like the rest of his works I actually found myself dreading the weekly meet-ups to watch it and counting down the episodes until we could move on to something else. I hate Whedon's work in Marvel, aside from a few scenes, because it was his touch that (maybe) paved the way to Self-Righteous Asshole Steve Rogers, which just...no. (And might have led to Hydra!Cap which is still an abomination unto mankind.) I hate that the Avengers movie ignored any character development in Tony, which is one of the biggest reasons I love Iron Man 3. I suspect he was behind the decision to break Tony and Pepper up, which--okay, Tony's not one to stay in relationships, usually, but this is freaking Pepper and do we need to have a discussion about a) character development and b) how WE DON'T SEE ENOUGH HEALTHY LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS IN TV BECAUSE DAMMIT WATCHING AN AWESOME COUPLE HAVE FIGHTS AND MAKE UP AND DEAL WITH LIFE'S SHENANIGANS TOGETHER IS JUST AS INTERESTING AND IN SOME CASES IS MORE SO THAN ALL THE ANGST 'LET'S BREAK THEM UP' THINGS?? Why? I love Wash/Zoe and we don't see much of them as a couple being all couply and I suspect personal issues lead to him having issues writing healthy long term relationships, but I digress.
The point is, I've never worshiped the ground beneath the man's feet. I've never seen him as The Last Great Feminist, or whatever he's trying to brand himself. I've never just loved his works unconditionally. Buffy and Angel and Firefly are problematic works. I love them, but there are just some really flawed parts of them, and I've never ignored that. All the characters do stupid things. And sometimes the stupid things are things people would do, and are in character, and the characters grow past them, so as dumb as they are, I don't retcon those. And some things, I thought, were written mostly for the angst or the CWness of it all, but we're learning now that maybe they were written for darker reasons, maybe.
I've always thought that the worst parts of Xander are Joss Whedon projecting. That hasn't changed.
I love the dialogue. That hasn't changed. I love huge parts of it, the show in general (obviously), but the parts I don't like haven't changed, nor have the things Whedon has written that I don't like.
The thing is, shows especially are huge creative endeavors brought to life by a huge group of people. Whedon's not responsible for every single awesome thing on Buffy and maybe his bad contributions outweigh the good. But you know what? There were awesome actors, and awesome script writers, and the whole freakin' fandom, and we made it our own, so you know what, Whedon? You can't take the sky from me.
