Man, I'm skipping around through Buffy s7 and the overarching thing I'm feeling this season is... tired. Like, I honestly love parts of the season so much and there are parts that I think they absolutely needed to deal with after the way s6 went that feel healing. I think there are places where it is so earnest in a way that a lot of the other seasons aren't, like it kind of abandons some of its genre-savviness and quippiness to just be real, and the realness of it is that - the characters themselves are tired, the viewers are tired, it's been a long long seven-year run, and the characters have been to hell and back and now hell is coming for them. But also the show itself feels tired, like everyone is just dragging out the last vestiges of their energy to take on so many desperately-needed storylines. People smarter than I am have done real analysis of the season and the show and how this season takes on too much for what it's able to be, and I agree with that, but I just - I can't disagree with the underlying earnestness of it. It takes itself seriously in a way that a lot of the other seasons don't, and it's not executed as well as I wish it were, but I just love it so much in some ways forthat, for the way that it tries to heal, but also tries to break the system at the same time. And it's so exhausting, and I'm exhausted watching it, but that just makes it feel even more real and necessary. And I don't think I'm making any sense, but I'm just having thoughts and when I have thoughts I put them indiscriminately on the internet, so . . . yeah.

I’m rewatching Buffy s5 and having a lot of thoughts about Buffy, Riley, the Scoobies, and emotional support - as they are in the show and as they are viewed in fandom - and I’ve never been good at putting together meta in a structured, thought-out way but I’m going to blather them all at you here anyway.

What’s striking me so much about season 5 is how Riley is actually a very good boyfriend, practically speaking. In these early episodes, when Buffy is dealing with figuring out these things about Dawn, trying to be a better Slayer, and most importantly and especially her mom being sick, he is constantly showing up for her in practical ways: taking care of Dawn, holding her close, being a significant rock for her in ways she really needs it. But he’s meanwhile starting to spiral out because he wants to be more of a rock to her than he is, or wants her to be more vulnerable around him than she is, and doesn’t understand the ways he’s already doing #1 and the ways she honestly can’t allow herself to do #2. And because of this, he starts being less good at #1.

But I found myself surprisingly comparing him to the Scoobies in episode 8 (the one with the giant snake). In this episode, Buffy goes after Glory alone and Riley comes into the Magic Shop - after having dome something very helpful and practical, looking after Dawn, which Buffy desperately needed from him - wanting to follow her. And Xander calls him out - hard and very rightfully - for not really knowing what he’s looking for, even. Transcript from here:

XANDER: Yeah. Crazy. Going off alone, half-cocked, instead of waiting for much-needed backup ... charging in with a big old hand grenade ... oh, wait.
Riley looks a little guilty. RILEY: This is different.
XANDER: Yeah, it is. Buffy needs something she can fight, something she can solve. I don't know what kind of action you're looking for ... (looks closer at Riley) Do you?

( Read more... )

-Buffy taking out a whole group of highly-trained soldiers in forty seconds
-In a similar vein, Buffy telling off a colonel for trying to do her job
-That one scene in Restless where Willow pulls back the curtains so that the sunlight floods in on Tara looking over her shoulder with her bare back covered in Greek letters

I am sure there will be more.

-Edit: forgot Buffy casually breaking a guy's wrist backhanded. (I'm sensing a theme here.)

Season 4: Ohmygosh Willow’s dating a woman!!!!! And Tara seems sweet, I guess. But ohmygosh Willow’s dating a woman!!!!!

Season 5: Tara definitely has her moments here and there! She’s good for Willow, I think.

Season 6: TARA IS THE REAL HERO OF THIS ENTIRE FRANCHISE I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE IS TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD.

Post-season 6: Rewatch every single episode in which Tara appears and find seventeen new understated reasons to love her in each one. Can’t believe you were ever underwhelmed by her because clearly she is the most perfect character to ever exist.

The Initiative plotline in season 4 is actually awesome. Adam himself I can take or leave, but a season-long arc about an entire military organization trying to do Buffy’s job and failing spectacularly? Extremely satisfying.