Yes, and I think this is just dropped in favor of doofy Xander and his wacky parents. Kid slept outside, by himself, in Sunnydale. Folks are for sure not paying attention to his safety, let alone his self-image.
Yeah, definitely on the parents not being great supervisors. On this rewatch I'm going to try to pay attention to how they are treated as the show goes on. I think the "wacky parents!" in "Hell's Bells" was perhaps not the wisest choice, but doesn't bother me too much because I see it as misdirection; Xander can write them off as having silly funny problems like his and Anya's silly funny problems until he sees them again at the end of the ep. So my theory/fanwank is that most of the wacky parents stuff in the show (of which there isn't that much) can feed into this.
But I agree that how smart Xander is academically vs. in actuality is a thread that they could have run with. I mean, they did with Buffy. And we got to see how high school!Anya was flunking math, but Magic Box!Anya was good with math.
Or when in ARwaV, she yells "I'm the biggest bitch in Sunnydale!" like it's this empowering thing against the vicious ghost. That's...actually not a good thing!
Ha! No it's not. But it also is, because it's the source of her strength. She's like Angel, right, whose strength is tied up in being a demon. And there's no doubt that the ghost needed to be bitched at. I think part of the joke in the episode (which is a comedy) is that Cordy doesn't change after one bad experience, and that it's a cheer-worthy moment when Cordy says she's a bitch. The fact that it's meant to be funny helps code in the ambivalence we should be feeling about Cordelia reclaiming her entitlement. I like Room w/a View, which is one of my top 5 or so s1 episodes before Faith's arrival (Five by Five is where the show really, really picks up for me). Although I've never been able to figure out what exactly the thing with the mother and son ghosts is supposed to represent, if anything. (Foreshadowing for Darla/Angel somehow?)
I'm not sure about her arc either. The next few eps are where she sort of joins the Scoobies so it'll be interesting to watch out for the change there!
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Date: 2010-09-28 03:50 am (UTC)Yeah, definitely on the parents not being great supervisors. On this rewatch I'm going to try to pay attention to how they are treated as the show goes on. I think the "wacky parents!" in "Hell's Bells" was perhaps not the wisest choice, but doesn't bother me too much because I see it as misdirection; Xander can write them off as having silly funny problems like his and Anya's silly funny problems until he sees them again at the end of the ep. So my theory/fanwank is that most of the wacky parents stuff in the show (of which there isn't that much) can feed into this.
But I agree that how smart Xander is academically vs. in actuality is a thread that they could have run with. I mean, they did with Buffy. And we got to see how high school!Anya was flunking math, but Magic Box!Anya was good with math.
Or when in ARwaV, she yells "I'm the biggest bitch in Sunnydale!" like it's this empowering thing against the vicious ghost. That's...actually not a good thing!
Ha! No it's not. But it also is, because it's the source of her strength. She's like Angel, right, whose strength is tied up in being a demon. And there's no doubt that the ghost needed to be bitched at. I think part of the joke in the episode (which is a comedy) is that Cordy doesn't change after one bad experience, and that it's a cheer-worthy moment when Cordy says she's a bitch. The fact that it's meant to be funny helps code in the ambivalence we should be feeling about Cordelia reclaiming her entitlement. I like Room w/a View, which is one of my top 5 or so s1 episodes before Faith's arrival (Five by Five is where the show really, really picks up for me). Although I've never been able to figure out what exactly the thing with the mother and son ghosts is supposed to represent, if anything. (Foreshadowing for Darla/Angel somehow?)
I'm not sure about her arc either. The next few eps are where she sort of joins the Scoobies so it'll be interesting to watch out for the change there!