the statement that Buffy just “settled on crime” is not an answer but a big honking question
Pretty much sums it up, yeah. :-) In fact, it's exactly the sort of questions they used to love to explore when they used to have a show.
Forgive me if I repeat some of what I said over at my own entry, but what I don't get is why they would think it's so unthinkable to give an explanation for it. I don't think anyone... or OK, I don't think a majority are asking for a detailed description of the events of every single day between "Chosen" and "The Long Way Home", but surely when we're talking about rather radical shifts in the characters' actions which are driving the entire season arc - Buffy's corruption, Giles' estrangement, Willow's affair with Saga Vasuki, etc - it has to be important to at least offer a few solid hints of how they got there? Sure we can always come up with fanwanks, but at the end of the day, that's all they are and like you say, everyone's explanation will be different.
To me, it's a devaluation of an issue that I thought was at the heart of the show: that we are free to choose our own actions, that there are always choices to make even if there's not always a good choice to make, but that those actions always have consequences. By saying that it's irrelevant how Buffy become a morally corrupt criminal with Übermensch tendencies, yet having the fact that she is one be an important plot point, they're essentially saying that the choices we make are irrelevant. If Buffy becoming corrupt is beyond her control, if it's just something that happened to her, they've robbed Buffy of her free will.
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Date: 2009-02-08 07:44 am (UTC)Pretty much sums it up, yeah. :-) In fact, it's exactly the sort of questions they used to love to explore when they used to have a show.
Forgive me if I repeat some of what I said over at my own entry, but what I don't get is why they would think it's so unthinkable to give an explanation for it. I don't think anyone... or OK, I don't think a majority are asking for a detailed description of the events of every single day between "Chosen" and "The Long Way Home", but surely when we're talking about rather radical shifts in the characters' actions which are driving the entire season arc - Buffy's corruption, Giles' estrangement, Willow's affair with Saga Vasuki, etc - it has to be important to at least offer a few solid hints of how they got there? Sure we can always come up with fanwanks, but at the end of the day, that's all they are and like you say, everyone's explanation will be different.
To me, it's a devaluation of an issue that I thought was at the heart of the show: that we are free to choose our own actions, that there are always choices to make even if there's not always a good choice to make, but that those actions always have consequences. By saying that it's irrelevant how Buffy become a morally corrupt criminal with Übermensch tendencies, yet having the fact that she is one be an important plot point, they're essentially saying that the choices we make are irrelevant. If Buffy becoming corrupt is beyond her control, if it's just something that happened to her, they've robbed Buffy of her free will.