maggie2

So today's not a very happy day for me in the fandom. But I decided to cheer myself up by kvetching about what IDW is doing to the character they call Spike. I want to rant and bash and rant and bash some more cause I just hate every idea they come up with over there. I thought Lynch did OK -- he was off on Spike, but he had enough that was right that I could see why other people like his work. But since then Willingham has taken the things that bugged me about Lynch's Spike and put them on steroids. Willingham is the guy who had a public meltdown about Joss stepping on *his* authorial privilege, a rant a lot of folks on my flist had sympathy with. I find it hard to get worked up about Willingham getting Jossed when Willingham can't be bothered to get to know the characters he's writing. I mean, if he's going to invent a bunch of folks, why not give them their own names and write a comic about them? Why pretend the story is related to AtS?

The offense in question was linked to on Whedonesque and reads as follows:

"The spoiler for this is that Spike from the 'Angel' series has been wondering for some time why prophecy never works out for him, why he's never the good guy," the writer said. "He's been looking into who gets to write prophecy. Do you go to school? Do you get a certificate? Is there a board of prophets that licenses you to?"

Circumstances will soon present Spike with the opportunity to tip prophecies in his favor, according to Willingham.

"One, he comes into a bit of money, and two, he has access to tons and tons of out-of-work Hollywood lawyers, so he starts hiring them to write prophecies where he's the star," he explained.

No, see, this makes total sense because Spike fought Angel for the Shanshu in Destiny, cause, you know, he just wanted to have it. It had *nothing* to do with them working out a century worth of issues. It was cause Spike just wants center stage and will do anything to get it. Spike's all about Spike and wanting to make sure the world's all about Spike too.

I know there are a bunch of people who are terrified about what Joss will end up doing to Spike. But I don't think I could imagine a worse set of stories about Spike than the ones I've been hearing about over at IDW. I'm a very bad person. I want their sales to tank and then tank some more. I'm all about the Schadenfreude when it comes to IDW. Bad, bad, Maggie.

Meanwhile the burning question of the day: which is worse -- a Spike who screws a celebrity vampire with the intention of torturing her for information later; or this? For me, it's this. There's something about the way this completely misunderstands the character that drives me up a tree.

I followed a link to a fascinating piece of meta by

londonkds about protagonist privilege. What I love about the piece is simply that it calls attention to protagonist privilege, the tendency to not hold the hero accountable the way other characters are held accountable and above all to sacrifice other characters or even the intrinsic logic of the 'verse to the psychological needs of the protagonist. (That doesn't do justice to the essay which you ought to read for yourself; but it's the point I want to jump off from). There are lots of reasons to be worried about the phenomenon. The one that most concerns me is that insofar as we're supposed to identify with the protagonist, protagonist privilege just encourages us in our tendency to narcissism and to narratively construct our lives in a way that blinds us from the truth about ourselves and the world we live in.

Whedon is called out as succumbing to this problem, most notably in the character of Buffy. What is ironic is that my particular fascination with Joss's work is that I read him as challenging protagonist privilege. Not directly (with an exception to be discussed below), but rather by exagerating it to the point where we should be made uncomfortable by it. Granted, I've not been sure that's what Joss is up to. My uncertainty on this point is no doubt why I've been so fascinated by this story. But deep down in my heart of hearts I hope that subverting protagonist privilege is the point, or at least one of Joss's points.

( Lengthy reflections on this point below the cut )

ETA:

green_maia has some interesting reactions to the same essay here.

The latest storm is because a Bangel-centric thread about the comics got linked to in SD Herald or something like that. I've read the thread in question, and it contains a lot of opinions that I disagree with. But I think my corner of the fandom is taking it too seriously. We all have our corners of the web -- and that thread is their corner. In our respective corners we have places where we feel free to let our hair down a bit and say what we want. That's especially true on an LJ.

Do we sometimes have mean and unkind things to say about others? You betcha. Sometimes it's legitimate criticism. Sometimes we say things with a bit more enthusiasm. My own latest infraction was taking a bit of glee when I remarked that # 34 was going to be spun by Bangels as working for their ship (even though I still fail to see how ending the world by having a porn fest while 206 of your friends just got butchered is an affirmation of teh romance) and was immediately rewarded with a post on BF by a Bangel saying #34 was just wonderful for Bangels. The poster in question seems to make a point of replying to my posts whether I'm addressing her or not in a manner I find distinctly unpleasant. So yeah, I enjoyed getting a few licks in on my LJ.   I left it unflocked because I figured if they were in the habit of policing what I say in my LJ they deserve to hear what they hear.

Is it the best side of human nature? No. Not at all. And I always feel bad afterward. I've put the Bangel in question on my ignore list so I can get out of brawl mode.

The Bangel thread that everyone is talking about is unpleasant. I also think their view of the comics is pretty wacky. But they haven't been aggressors here. Aggression would be going on to public forums saying those things or on to the LJ's of people they hate and saying those things.   They haven't done that. And since everyone bashes others in private I don't think they deserve to be chastised for having done some bashing in a zone that is their zone.

So today is shipping war day.

gabrielleabelle has a good post on why shipping misses the point. I'd add that the other reason it's silly is because BtVS is polysemic. (I'm still having a love affair with that word, it means capable of different interpretations). We all really can win here. I thought #34 was very nice for someone with my sensibilities. People I disagree with strongly think that #34 was very nice for their sensibilities. So why all the screaming?

Anyway, I just finishing watching seven seasons of The Shield, which really isn't polysemic (that I've noticed, anyway), but is really quite good. It's gritty LA cop stuff, which I mostly don't like. I can never keep track of how all the drug deals work. But it delivers a remarkable character: Vic Mackey, who has some genuinely heroic traits, who also cuts corners in pursuit of the good and goes terribly terribly wrong as a result. For the most part the show does a good job of not dialing back on either the heroism or the villainy so at least for me, I hit the finish line both loving him and hating him. There's more to be said -- below the cut with full spoilers for all seven seasons.

( Read more... )

So I realize I'm in a pretty good mood after reading #34.

( Read more... )

ETA: I was telling my brother about the pornfest, and this line popped into my head:

"It wasn't one time. It was lots of times. And lots of different ways. I can make sketches."

The resonance amuses me.

ETA: Who'd have thought Bangel!Boink!Day would be such a splendid holiday? Please have a gander at eilowyn 's offering!

( The Good )

( The Bad )
( The Ugly )

( The Indeterminate )

Twelve years ago I was received into the Church at Easter Vigil. It was the best night of my life. I can't even describe in words the longing I had for Eucharist or the joy of receiving it. My life since then has been full along every dimension -- I was welcomed into a community spanning peoples and classes and ages, a singularly vibrant parish comprised of devout Filipinos, Hispanics and Anglos; I have seen miracles; I have known great love; I have had my soul ripped apart in agony. I gave up tenure and a beautiful home to follow a calling to a new career -- which after seven years of labor and arid desert is finally bearing fruit. Everything changed. Becoming Catholic was the last thing I expected. I was a practicing Pagan with no use for organized religion. My Church is flawed, to put it mildly. But at the heart of the Church there is this incredible faith and love that is stunning. I know a woman who was abused and massively unsure of herself as a result, who felt called by the spirit to organize over fifty volunteers in six teams to offer a weekly sit-down dinner to over 150 homeless people so they could not only be fed, but dine with dignity. Table clothes, candles, and people to wait on them. I have neighbors raising four children on his income as a high school teacher who took in four more children when their parents went to jail on drug charges. I have seen a man with a horrendous wasting disease that is disintegrating his bones bit by bit in an endless agony, who meets each day with joy and concern for others. People are amazing. For a cynical child of the seventies it has been humbling in the extreme to realize that you really can just love other people with everything that you are. I have not missed an Easter Vigil since my conversion, and I pray God that I never will. There is a light in all that darkness, a promise in faith and hope and love that the light will swallow up the darkness, that in the end every tear will be wiped away. Happy Easter!!!

I don't think it's hard to figure out what the all-Bangel theme we've been getting in the latest interviews and announcements is about. DH is pimping the crap out of the sexfest that they've all-but promised is happening in #34. It reminds me of the massive pimping of Batsu, which was blown way out of proportion to the importance of that for the story. BtVS often gets marketed as Bangel is epic romantic love, so this is nothing new. It doesn't tell us much about what the actual story is, since Bangel was always being subverted at the same time it was being told. (If you haven't read it yet, get thee to

gabrielleabelle 's latest on subverting Bangel).

For those who heard the latest about Spike fans being disappointed, please note that a clarification came out that the PR guy was talking about #34, not #40. But Allie has already told us that we aren't going to be happy at #34. I don't know if what Joss delivers in the last arc will float my all-about-Spike boat, but it remains the case that I can't read #33 and think that it's any sort of bouquet for Bangel fans. I think it's just making the Bangel subversion that's always been there that much more obvious.

Anyway, the point of this post is just that if you give weight to marketing and interviews, the story is total crap. But then, I think that was true during the series' run itself. I only saw it retrosectively, but the interviews and reactions I have read are never in alignment with the show I watched on the screen. But it's the show on the screen I love. So I continue to think it's premature to assume that season 8 is a crashing disaster. There's still room for me, at least, to very much get what I want out of the story. I've always loved that the show subverted the surface text, but that requires that one experience a great deal of cognitive dissonance every time the marketing department opens its mouth or another interview comes out.

Obviously spending too much time thinking about this -- but I am having fun. Anyway, meta by

candleanfeather and by

stormwreath along with discussions on Buffy forum have fueled my thinking about what the glow juice thingy means for Spike.

Long meta below.

The New Mythology.

( Read more... )

A clarification about my post on #33 and the Bangel ship.

( Read more... )

Maybe it's because by the time a verse has gotten as dense as the Buffyverse has that everything starts echoing with everything. But I find it interesting the way seven seasons of villains are getting recalled in season 8.

( Read more... )

Apparently we get all but B7 on April 1st. I'm trying to figure out why this makes me happy. Have I gotten that lazy that not having to get out of my chair to put a DVD in seems like something to look forward to? Or is it because I'm hoping the streams will come in HD? Curious. But the news does make me happy.

I never get off on Schadenfreude. No matter how much someone brasses me off. So when a prominent Bangel with whom I'm definitely not friendly worried that Joss is being deliberately cruel to a segment of the fandom, I really felt her pain. Cause #33? Not nice.

( Read more... )

Several posts lately about Spuffy in one shape or another has made me ruminate more than I like on my journey to post-Spuffiness. So I wrote it all down and then tore it all up. There are a lot of different versions of being a Spuffy. The only one that is universally agreed on is that all-Penguin AU Spuffy is the best thing ever (cause, well, it just is). But one of the big differences in versions of Spuffy is whether it's a Buffy POV Spuffy or a Spike POV Spuffy. I'm Spike POV all the way. And something in the way I'm Spike POV makes me want to stomp around when people I love and respect say that Spike believed her. Herewith a bit of history and an argument.

( Read more... )

So sometimes the plot has to bend around other things the writers are after. In a seven year run on TV like the one BtVS enjoyed that has to happen a few times. Seth Green decides to leave suddenly, and the story bends around his departure. Sometimes the bends work. Other times they are, shall we say, less than obviously natural to the flow of the story.

There are two that come to mind with regard to Spike's story. ( Musings below the cut )

Everyone's doing it, but I want to start by saying that I'm never buying another DVD again, because they are nearly obsolete.

DVD's:

Buffy - Complete
Angel - Complete
Firefly (and Serenity)
Lost - 1, 2, and 3.
Dollhouse 1
Sister Wendy!!!

I went through a phase of buying media through I-tunes because watching TV on an Ipod while exercising got me to do a lot of exercising. Through I-Tunes, I've gotten:

BSG -- Complete
Supernatural -- 1, 2
Big Love -- 1, 2
Moonlight (boring!!!)
Various seasons of 24 that I watched and enjoyed and deleted. Ditto survivor which is my guilty pleasure.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

But now when I buy TV, I do it on Amazon-on-demand, and get pretty HD pictures when possible:

Mad Men -- 1-3
Dexter -- 1-3
Glee - 1 (not HD)
Dollhouse 2 (not HD)
Friday Night Lights 1
Caprica

Maybe the tech will fail and I'll wish I had the solid DVD. OTOH, I've had plenty of disks become unuseable. Meanwhile, I just like having it all at one button and not taking up space in my house. I *really* like that. I also like having access to it when I'm not at home. It's nice watching on the pretty TV, but computer watching on the road is nice to have as an option.

And then there's a pile of TV I have queued up on Netflix streaming:

Dr. Who -- 1-4
Torchwood -- 1, 2, Children of the Earth (HD)
Farscape -- 1-3
Highlander is coming soon.
The Shield -- 6-7 (having to due disks for the first several seasons)
30 Rock -- 1-3 (HD)

Granted, Netflix streaming media comes and goes -- but on any given day there's way too much to choose from.

We are heading to the world, aren't we, where all of our media is on-line? Seems that way to me.

I'm sure stormwreath will be up with a detailed review at some point. But there's a major development in season 8 regarding the slayer spell. The whole issue ends up being really quite disturbing.

( Read more... )

It landed in my in-box at Amazon early. Catch it if you can. The long series that landed at Epitaph Two would have been *really* good. Sigh.

Spoilers. Personally, I think you should let yourself get spoiled and hop into the mainline discussion where everybody knows. But if you are all about the big surprise, don't read this.

Some thoughts about season 8 in the wake of Turbulence, and in light of the Big Reveal below the cut.

( Read more... )

( Spoilers for Season 8 )

For unrestrained please see this:

http://buffyforums.net/forums/showpost.php?p=436756&postcount=65

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IDW and Spike

Protagonist Privilege

Shipping wars

The Shield

#34: Some more reaction

#34: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- A Very Quick Dash of Reporting

Resurrexit Sicut Dixit!

The PR department at DH

(no subject)

Follow Up on that Battered Bangel Ship

7 Villains and season 8

Buffy and Angel coming on Netflix instant watch

Twilight #33 -- In which Joss batters the Bangel ship

Spike Didn't Believe Her

Living with Plot Contrivances: or how I learned to (mostly) stop worrying and love Spike's story

DVD Meme

#32: Twilight Part One -- Chosen led to this?

Epitaph Two

Ramblings about Season 8, Inspired by #31

I'll try to be restrained about this

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September 2010

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