Annoyance of the day:

[lirazel]

People who flat-out say that Buffy didn't love Spike despite the fact that she said she did.

She said she did. The only reason we have to believe that she didn't is one thing Spike said, and since when do people believe anything that comes out of Spike's mouth? Boy can speak the truth that no one else will, but he also says a ton of b.s., and everyone knows it.

I just hatehatehatehatehatehate all of these people sitting around telling a woman (and it would be a woman--if a man said, it I think a lot less people would disagree with her) who finds it nearly impossible to say the words "I love you" even to people she regards as family (remember "Intervention"? That's canon) that she doesn't love someone when she said she did.

I don't have a problem with people quibbling over the nature of her love. You can argue that she didn't love him romantically or as much as she did Angel or whatever (I would disagree with the first one and re: the second, I would remind you that, as the_royal_anna says, we don't love in amounts. We love in ways). That's legit. But to say, flat-out, that she didn't love him even though she says she did takes agency away from Buffy in a way that I am entirely uncomfortable with and that DRIVES ME CRAZY, OKAY. If she had said she loved Riley (she didn't, did she?), I would be pissed at people saying she didn't love him, either. Uuuugh why does this annoy me so much?

Comments

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

It's a good card. But even if you don't play it, there is canonically no reason to disbelieve her words. There are plenty of cases in canon where we're given reason to believe that the person speaking isn't being truthful or is wrong or whatever. I'm all for acknowledging those times. But in this case we have zero reason to believe that. There is no evidence in the story--except for Spike's words, and he's not exactly reliable as a speaker--to discount what he says. To pat Buffy on the head and say, "Oh, sweetie, we know you don't really mean that. I know your emotions better than you do" is patronizing and insulting to the character.

UGH!

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Eh. I think it's an obvious shipper bias on some people's part. I had a B/A fan comment on my post on S6 and consent and somehow started going on about how Buffy never emotionally forgave Spike for the AR and totes didn't mean it when she told him she loved him. I boggled a) as to why that was relevant to the post b) as to where they were pulling that from in canon.

It's, indeed, very significant that Buffy had never romantically declared her love to anyone after Angel. After all that, to have her finally make such a declaration and not mean it is...stupid. Thematically, it lacks the necessary resonance.