Agreed to a point. Typically, I'm not too attached to intent, because I love S6 and I think a lot of the brilliance was unintentional.
I think what peeves most fans (including myself) about Xander's speech is that it does act as the final word on the subject. Riley returns in AYW and we get no commentary on ITW at all.
And when the final word is that Buffy is deficient and wrong, it's very annoying. It's especially annoying because Buffy does take it to heart for the rest of the series. And it's extra annoying because it's unquestioned and unchallenged by anybody else.
Certainly, the writers are just laying it out there, and we all come to our own conclusions. But in this case, they're not putting out any alternative viewpoints on the matter, and when Xander's speech in ITW is set up as some ultimate truth reveal, that's what viewers are gonna take it as.
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Date: 2009-09-29 04:37 am (UTC)I think what peeves most fans (including myself) about Xander's speech is that it does act as the final word on the subject. Riley returns in AYW and we get no commentary on ITW at all.
And when the final word is that Buffy is deficient and wrong, it's very annoying. It's especially annoying because Buffy does take it to heart for the rest of the series. And it's extra annoying because it's unquestioned and unchallenged by anybody else.
Certainly, the writers are just laying it out there, and we all come to our own conclusions. But in this case, they're not putting out any alternative viewpoints on the matter, and when Xander's speech in ITW is set up as some ultimate truth reveal, that's what viewers are gonna take it as.