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

[laeria.livejournal.com]

Yeah. When Angel reappeared in S7, I could hear Joss chuckling malevolently. I don't actually mind his open gleeful fan-manipulation too much (creators gotta get their kicks somewhere), but it's tiring and it takes some conscious effort to ignore it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I actually think that it really short-circuits the episode. Without Angel there, the whole series of events plays rather differently than they would have otherwise. The tragedy and the uplift would have worked better without his trying to split the difference between two ships.

[laeria.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind Angel's presence in the context of an apocalypse-backup (which makes sense! I mean, this was a srs bsnss apocalypse, it makes sense to form a Sunnydale-LA alliance against it) and it was good for magic jewelery ex machina. However, yes, the ~shipping tension~ was cheesy and deteriorated from the point of the finale.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I just always find myself wishing that they had employed Boreanaz's crossover time with the First impersonating Angelus. Having Buffy face Angelus would have worked in the sense of her facing down her own lingering demons (from beneath you it devours) vanquishing one of the aspects of her past that are trapping her in a certain emotional place.

[laeria.livejournal.com]

... I really like this idea.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I just always find myself wishing that they had employed Boreanaz's crossover time with the First impersonating Angelus

I always wished for that too :/ It was kind of lame how they used Drusilla to represent the big bad from season 2 (during Lessons), even though I understand that contract issues with DB were the reason for it.