Meta

[author_by_night]

It's meta time! Although I'm probably completely misusing the term "meta."

Everything fan related under their respective cuts are going to have spoilers. Just saying.

Buffy

So I watched the fifth season of Buffy, and have been watching the sixth season - out of order. Which might be dumb and may make some of my points a little invalid (as when something is shown to the viewers can be key), but I'll say these things anyway.

I didn't mind season five at all; it wasn't the horrible season everyone warned me about. I'm not crazy about Dawn's Key storyline, just because I feel that it's a little convenient, and yet at the same time, not convenient as a viewer. Maybe it's just me, but the way I see it, if every episode is from Buffy or another Scooby's perspective... that means everything we saw prior to season five is now an AU in the perspective of the characters, even though they're the real AU. I can see why Joss did it like that, but wouldn't it have been easier to just establish that Buffy had a sister who lived with her dad, and then when Joss decided to make Hank Summers a deadbeat dad, make Dawn move in with them when she got sick of him forgetting to pick her up from the movies all the time? 

I don't mind Dawn herself, unlike many fans. Sure, she has episodes where she's more annoying than others, but as I've already told some people - she's a teenager. Honestly, also being the baby of my family (if an only child), I can actually relate just a little.

I didn't like Joyce's cancer death (well, okay, so it was technically the surgery as opposed to the actual tumor), because as someone with family and family friends who are cancer survivors... "well someone was cured of cancer but still died" or "it came back!" storylines bother me. However, I thought it was well done.

As far as season six goes... as I said, I haven't seen everything in order. I don't really like Buffy and Spike, but to be perfectly honest, I don't think we're dealing with a mentally stable Buffy. The whole point of her arc throughout that particular season is that she's been pulled from the afterlife. Not only that, but into a life she didn't ever choose to have. For the first time in her life she was truly happy, and all of a sudden she has to fight vampires and deal with the people she's lost or might lose all over again. That has to be traumatic, and when people have gone through trauma, they do things they wouldn't ordrinarily do.

Willow... I don't know. On one hand, I honestly think that, like Buffy, Willow's been put through more than she can handle. I actually think it all began when Jenny Calendar died in season two - if you think about it, that's when she really got into magic. So in that way, I can understand, and I can definitely understand why she finally lost it.  That said, Willow's really quite selfish in this season, and it's a bit off putting. Her losing it is one thing; her being completely rational and sane when she attempts to wipe Tara's memory twice is another.

I still think my favorite season is the third.
Firefly

In light of being confirmed in my belief that no Whedonverse couples are allowed to be or remain happy, I'm not as sorry that it got canceled as I think I should be.

That said, I do think that there were a lot of things that have been left unresolved, things that might actually help me enjoy the 'verse more. Why on earth has society jumped back thousands of years, as opposed to moved forward? I can understand that they had to start over, but still, I'd like a stronger explanation. The same thing goes with the language - yes, the "gorram" talk works well with the country western atmosphere, but still.

One last thing: Who else likes the idea of Zoe being pregnant post-BDM/Serenity? 

Earth's Children

I want to talk about a certain EC novels we're all familiar with: The baby talk, or rather, lack thereof. Until Ayla.

I plan on doing an essay of sorts on this, but for now, I did come up with one theory as to why they don't know that sex = pregnancy, and pregnancy = sex, or at least how it works as a tool for Jean Auel.

Ultimately, in order for their culture to survive, they can't know. As long as there's no knowledge of how sex came to be,  sex has no limits, and completely spiritual. (And okay, because apparently JA  likes writing x-rated sex scenes.) There's no reprucussions, and there's certainly no pressure to have sex or to not have sex.

That said, I don't know that I completely believe that nobody knows deep down. The rule that the Clan had that men and women couldn't sleep in the same area until they'd all found a Cave felt highly convenient to me; obviously that limits the opportunity for any lovemaking to occur, which means a limited risk of a child being born at a time when the Clan did not have a home, or at least not a permanent home. I think the Zelandonii have a rule along those lines as well, and again, it just feels highly convenient.

Overall, nine years after having read the books, I still can't believe that people back then wouldn't have figured it out until an Ayla type came along.

Comments

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I've never been particularly involved in Buffy fandom, but the idea that people think Season 5 is horrible is... something I'd never heard before - I personally consider it to be up with 2 and 3 as one of the best seasons (4, 6 and 7 are the ones I've heard more bitching about, for more-or-less valid reasons)

I really do love Firefly - it's still my favourite Joss thing - but I do sometimes wonder if that's because the show got cancelled before it got to do something I disliked.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I think that the problem with season five is that it's just so different from the other Buffy seasons. Of course, so was season four, but season five takes it a step further. It's also a lot more cynical - Buffy's Mom dies, Buffy's sister isn't real, and oh yeah, the only Deity we've ever met wants to destroy the world. I can see why some people found all that off putting.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've mostly heard complaints about 6 and 7 (but then, that's probably because the areas of Buffy fandom I hung out in were firmly B/S, and you can see why they'd be *highly* hacked off with S6.) I thought 5 was one of the finest seasons, myself; it would have been a good high point to go out on. Pity it didn't, in a lot of ways.

[sea_thoughts]

I still think my favorite season is the third.

Agreed. Buffy was best in high school.

Why on earth has society jumped back thousands of years, as opposed to moved forward?

I think there are indications (either in the DVD extras or in the series info) that while planets in the centre of the galaxy have a lot of technology, the worlds on the outskirts of the Alliance are not given much attention or financial aid and therefore the societies are living in a new kind of frontier.