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

[next_to_normal]

I'm not saying you should accept authorial intent at all if you don't want to. (Frankly, I think trying to figure out what the hell Joss really intended is an excellent way to drive yourself completely mad. You're absolutely right - he contradicts himself all the time.) It just seemed weird to me that you'd assume your interpretation of S6 is wrong because it's contradicted by what the writers said, but when Joss actually agrees with you in S7, you discount it. But clearly we're talking past each other to some extent, because you're incorporating the comics, whereas they have absolutely no bearing on my interpretation of the TV show.

Personally, I don't give a fig what Joss intended. If the comics have done anything for me, they've proven that the story I want to see is not the story Joss is interested in telling. That doesn't mean the story I'm seeing isn't there, and if something he says or does outside the text contradicts what I see on screen, I'm gonna ignore him.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

they've proven that the story I want to see is not the story Joss is interested in telling

Yeah, unfortunately, I reached that conclusion long ago.

And it really isn't a matter of picking and choosing commentaries it's that what we were told foretold what happened. As you watch it in a cause and effect sequence rather than explanation after the fact, it takes on a slightly different perspective.