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* Buffy: I don't much like the Buffy themesong. It's boring generic action music. It doesn't evoke much or comment on the content the way the Angel theme does. In season six in particular, it seems mocking. Here is a scene of Buffy brutally beating her lover. Cue happy action theme music! Here is Anya weeping after idiot Xander dumped her at their wedding and now she's being tempted to go back to demoning! Cue happy action theme music! I can't tell if this is terrible or brilliant. It may possibly be both all at once. Normal Again: Oh look! They are pulling a st. Elsewhere. Meh. It's nice to see Spike growing a spine, at least. Also, Tara as calvary is pleasing as she's often under-utilized. I keep thinking about the Spike and Xander thing. Xander most hates in Spike his fixation on Buffy, which is one of Xander's defining characteristics from season to season. I keep thinking of Spike as a mortal back in the episode where he tells Buffy how he killed the slayers. Spike was once an upper class Xander and reinvented himself in rejection of his mortal self. It's kind of beautiful in it's ********. The antipathy seems pretty natural in that light, each hating what they find most pathetic in themselves in the mirror of the other one. Angel: Couplet: I wish they'd all grow up and just declare themselves or whatever and take their lumps and move on. It's too... soap opera for me. The whole Grue mini-me thing says a lot about Cordelia, but it makes me queasy. I never had a lot of patience for dithering. Loyalty: And once again, Wesley works himself up towards making the wrong decision because he refuses to communicate with others or think everything through. I think Squirrel is right and Wesley and Gunn's pursuit of Fred is more about their competition with each other than with their desire for her. We were discussing Angel vs. Spike the other night. We both find Angel boring and static as a character (We like the Angel supporting cast, mostly. It's just him. And Connor). Spike on the other hand is constantly changing. Part of what is working for me with Buffy seasons five and six is Spike's evolution, his struggle with himself between who he is and what he's becoming, between what he wants and what he thinks he wants, between his image of himself and the reality of who he is. I've seen what he's like in the later angels two and he's still snarled up with growing pains. Squirrel and I think this makes him a better hero than Angel. Buffy works as a hero because she grows. If she'd stayed season one Buffy, she'd have become boring and hackneyed. With Angel it's round after round of him learning nothing, achieving nothing much. Squirrel pointed out that spike earns his soul through struggle with his own nature. Angel doesn't earn his and he never struggles against his own dark at the various points he's Angelus. He is given a soul and he mopes and plays martyr. It's taken and he wanders around being bad. Is two settings, like an on off switch.
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