Old Fandom Wounds...
Dec. 18th, 2011 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliodragonOr Why Seven Years Later Angel Season 4 Can Still Bite Me!
It's become apparent, as I begin my Angel season 5rewatch, that I should probably start off by stating why I am only watching it now, or I'll end up going on and on about it instead of talking about the episodes. Well, that's pretty easy:
Season 4. Man, how I hated that season.
Okay, a little more. First off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel was the first of my online fandoms. I didn't do anything, still full of far too many issues to do more than lurk, but lurk I did. Probably a good thing too: the fights, oh God the fights. Spike vrs Xander, the Great Dead Lesbian Saga, Spuffy, the B/Aers, the glorious wankstorms. I had my sides, though my cheer-leading was mostly silent.
Bibliodragon, the early years.
Lets run them down: Spike- better when he was funny and evil, Willow/Tara- yay lesbians, though Tara can do better, Xander- like but would be better if the writers acknowledged his Nice Guy fucked up-ness, Anya/Giles 4EVA, ATS was better than BtVS, Buffy/Angel- too melodramatic, Cordy was the best and Cordy/Angel=awesome.
You may be able to see where I'm going with this.
Oh Cordy! Cordy, Cordy, Cordy. My God! What did they do to you?
Now, the problem really started when the writers decided that the way to do the Cordy/Angel ship was to ignore everything that had made it unique (basis in strong friendship, lack of melodrama, but with enough obstacles built in to keep it interesting) and keep to the old relationship formula. Hello angst, hello melodrama, hello manufactured obstacles. And that started in season 3. In fact I can pinpoint the exact place the problem started: When Cordy was made part-demon. Awesome, I though, solving the vision problem yet with so much opportunity for development and drama to follow. I can't wait to see what they do with it.
Ha. Ha ha.
The following episodes saw a distinct lack of exploring this fascinating plot point. I'm sure they're going somewhere with this, I thought. Look at the new visions, that means somethings going on, right. But look, there doing the C/A! Though the friendship doesn't get as much focus anymore...
And funnily enough, the development-to-stop-my-beloved-female-character-from-dieing-that-I-can't-wait-to-see-explored-yet-would-become-apparant-was-just-thrown-in-there-to-stop-the-character-from-dieing would crop up again in BSG. But at least all BSG did was forget about it. What AtS ended up using it for...
The most impressive piece of character destruction I have ever seen. It beat the mess that happened with Starbuck! At least I always got the impression that came about because of the writers focus on their Next! Cool! Twist!, it never felt as...nasty like what happened to Cordy. (No, that fell to poor Callie. Even dead she could not escape the character assassination.)
Watching the Evil Cordy story unfold was, urgh!
(And this isn't even going into the who CC's real life pregnancy thing and who they dealt with that. Have your pregnant actress walk around in heels and have to play demon spawn possession because she couldn't do what you initially planned. Jeez Joss, way to kill your feminist cred there.)
But it turned out there was a reason for all the out of character evilness and...Conner...thing. She was being used by an ancient evil, of course. Oh wow, I can't wat to see how she deals with this, she's going to be really damaged by having her desire to do good turned against her into hosting a evil goddess and being made to kill and...boff...Conner. The character development!
Joss: Oh yeah, lying in a coma? That's gonna be the last time you see Cordy. But look, we're getting Spike!
...
JOSS!
Then I made a decision. I had pushed through watching Buffy season 8, even though by the end it was becoming a chore. To an extent that it was tainting the earlier episodes. Nope, I decided, I would end the relationship. I would take my seasons 1, 2 and 3.5 VHS sets and and would ignore the rest. And no more hanging about on the boards and letting the hate fester like what had happened with BtVS. A clean break. No season 5 for me. Even with my mother watching it for her Spike fix, it was headphones on and surfing the net. Hmm, this Battlestar Remake thing, looks interesting, even if they did change Starbuck to a woman for cheap publicity. Hey, isn't that Stands with a Fist?
Ok, so that's a little bit more than just a little more.
So why now? Well, the betrayed fannish rage has gone, despite what the above wall o' text may indicate, and I know how things turn out, and that the source of my rage was addressed (though not by choice. Grr writers, what were you thinking wanting to make AtS 100th ep All About Buffy?). I want to see what a distanced perspective would bring.
Two eps in? Woah, the loss of Cordelia is really, really obvious here. That and whoa, James Marsters looks rough. But I'll go into that more later.
It's become apparent, as I begin my Angel season 5
Season 4. Man, how I hated that season.
Okay, a little more. First off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel was the first of my online fandoms. I didn't do anything, still full of far too many issues to do more than lurk, but lurk I did. Probably a good thing too: the fights, oh God the fights. Spike vrs Xander, the Great Dead Lesbian Saga, Spuffy, the B/Aers, the glorious wankstorms. I had my sides, though my cheer-leading was mostly silent.
Lets run them down: Spike- better when he was funny and evil, Willow/Tara- yay lesbians, though Tara can do better, Xander- like but would be better if the writers acknowledged his Nice Guy fucked up-ness, Anya/Giles 4EVA, ATS was better than BtVS, Buffy/Angel- too melodramatic, Cordy was the best and Cordy/Angel=awesome.
You may be able to see where I'm going with this.
Oh Cordy! Cordy, Cordy, Cordy. My God! What did they do to you?
Now, the problem really started when the writers decided that the way to do the Cordy/Angel ship was to ignore everything that had made it unique (basis in strong friendship, lack of melodrama, but with enough obstacles built in to keep it interesting) and keep to the old relationship formula. Hello angst, hello melodrama, hello manufactured obstacles. And that started in season 3. In fact I can pinpoint the exact place the problem started: When Cordy was made part-demon. Awesome, I though, solving the vision problem yet with so much opportunity for development and drama to follow. I can't wait to see what they do with it.
Ha. Ha ha.
The following episodes saw a distinct lack of exploring this fascinating plot point. I'm sure they're going somewhere with this, I thought. Look at the new visions, that means somethings going on, right. But look, there doing the C/A! Though the friendship doesn't get as much focus anymore...
And funnily enough, the development-to-stop-my-beloved-female-character-from-dieing-that-I-can't-wait-to-see-explored-yet-would-become-apparant-was-just-thrown-in-there-to-stop-the-character-from-dieing would crop up again in BSG. But at least all BSG did was forget about it. What AtS ended up using it for...
The most impressive piece of character destruction I have ever seen. It beat the mess that happened with Starbuck! At least I always got the impression that came about because of the writers focus on their Next! Cool! Twist!, it never felt as...nasty like what happened to Cordy. (No, that fell to poor Callie. Even dead she could not escape the character assassination.)
Watching the Evil Cordy story unfold was, urgh!
(And this isn't even going into the who CC's real life pregnancy thing and who they dealt with that. Have your pregnant actress walk around in heels and have to play demon spawn possession because she couldn't do what you initially planned. Jeez Joss, way to kill your feminist cred there.)
But it turned out there was a reason for all the out of character evilness and...Conner...thing. She was being used by an ancient evil, of course. Oh wow, I can't wat to see how she deals with this, she's going to be really damaged by having her desire to do good turned against her into hosting a evil goddess and being made to kill and...boff...Conner. The character development!
Joss: Oh yeah, lying in a coma? That's gonna be the last time you see Cordy. But look, we're getting Spike!
...
Then I made a decision. I had pushed through watching Buffy season 8, even though by the end it was becoming a chore. To an extent that it was tainting the earlier episodes. Nope, I decided, I would end the relationship. I would take my seasons 1, 2 and 3.5 VHS sets and and would ignore the rest. And no more hanging about on the boards and letting the hate fester like what had happened with BtVS. A clean break. No season 5 for me. Even with my mother watching it for her Spike fix, it was headphones on and surfing the net. Hmm, this Battlestar Remake thing, looks interesting, even if they did change Starbuck to a woman for cheap publicity. Hey, isn't that Stands with a Fist?
Ok, so that's a little bit more than just a little more.
So why now? Well, the betrayed fannish rage has gone, despite what the above wall o' text may indicate, and I know how things turn out, and that the source of my rage was addressed (though not by choice. Grr writers, what were you thinking wanting to make AtS 100th ep All About Buffy?). I want to see what a distanced perspective would bring.
Two eps in? Woah, the loss of Cordelia is really, really obvious here. That and whoa, James Marsters looks rough. But I'll go into that more later.
