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

[blackfrancine.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I get that. And I actually think that would make way more sense. But, if it has nothing to do with their ~Special LUV~ --if it was all about Jasmine/the Powers--how come the claddagh ring was the catalyst? (I'm actually hoping you have an answer for this--because I really hate making the leap to "their love brought him back!"--it seems so irrational--at least with Buffy and Spike there's mystical light beaming out of Spike at the time--and the flames are mostly symbolic, they aren't an actual plot point).

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

The claddagh ring belonged to him before he gave it to her -- it symbolizes his connection to the world, and it's a sympathetic object. It's like using a photograph of Joyce to bring her back from the dead, or using Buffy's ring (in "Who Are You?") to summon the draconian katra.

Basically I imagine Jasmine (or The Powers, or Jasmine and The Other Powers -- this is all open to interpretation) used an emotionally charged object belonging to him as a focal point. Sort of like a guiding beacon as he traversed the worlds.