Perception and A Challenge
Oct. 23rd, 2003 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat(All of the below is a combination of information I got from my Marketing textbook/class and my own perceptions and opinions - it's sort of a silly epiphany I wanted to write down and share.)
Next week I have a mid-term for my Marketing class and to prepare for it, I’ve been hastily reading assigned chapters in a book by Pride and Ferrell called Marketing Concepts and Strategies, which in of itself isn’t really worth posting about in live journal. Who gives a crap about my Marketing class? But chapter 8 deals with Consumer Buying Behavior and smack dab in the middle of a chapter discussing situational factors and other business terms, there’s a nifty little section on Psychological Influences on Buying Decision Process, which in turn discusses Perception. While reading it I was struck by how clearly it explained the differing fan responses that can lead to literal battles over a television show. Why two person can watch exactly the same show on TV yet react so differently to it – to the extent that it’s almost as if they saw two different shows, each believing that their version is the correct one.
The chapter starts with a black and white picture of fish and birds above the ocean. The caption beside the picture asks: Do you see the fish changing into birds or the birds changing into fish? One person may see birds turning into fish. Another fish turning into birds. A third just fish and birds with no change occurring. What each person sees depends on how they view the world, different people perceive the same thing at the same time in different ways.
Perception, according to Pride and Ferrell, is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. Information inputs are sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch. And perception is a three-step process. Although we perceive many things at once – only a few reach our awareness. For instance if you are reading this entry, concentrating on it, you may not be aware of the cars buzzing outside, your kids arguing in the background, your co-workers typing or on the phone in the cubicle next to you – even though you are receiving these inputs, they do not reach your awareness until they are pointed out. What our current needs are at a given time – is often what we focus on or what reaches our awareness. If for instance our current need is to walk across the street – our awareness will be focused on what is directly in our path or preventing us from crossing the street. If we are merely wandering around town in no hurry, we may be aware of what is blocking our path across the street, but be more focused on the fact that there is a kid playing with chalk on the sidewalk.
(What follows is lengthy discourse on how we perceive information and why from a marketing/broadcast perspective, includes a silly challenge...read at own risk ;-))
Selective nature of perception can be broken down into/or explained by two conditions:
1. Selective Distortion – this is when we twist the information we see so that it remains consistent with our personal beliefs or feelings. In marketing this occurs when someone perceives a commercial where their favorite brand is depicting doing poorly against an unknown or disliked brand. They may distort what they see to fit their prior views. It also happens when we watch a tv show, if a character we despise is shown in a positive light, we may distort what we perceive in order to maintain the prior view, particularly if we feel passionately about the character. Same thing happens if a character we loved is shown in a negative light. Examples: how viewers responded to Seeing Red and Dead Things. Other examples: how viewers respond to the characters of Angel and Spike. (One viewer will claim their view is the correct one while the other viewers is distorted. But truth is? Both views may be.)
2. Selective Retention – a person remembers information inputs that support personal feelings and beliefs and forgets inputs that do not. Basically we remember what we want to remember.
The next step is how we organize the data that we’ve perceived. When watching a television show or a commercial – the information that comes to our isn’t always organized, it’s received in pieces. We get images, we get sound, we get external sounds and images that have nothing to do with the program, commercial breaks, etc – to produce meaning we mentally organize and integrate the new information with what is already stored. We use different methods to organize data – one method is called “closure” – which occurs when someone mentally fills in missing elements in a pattern or statement. We also sometimes use an internal indexing system – placing situations we see alongside situations we’ve experienced before.
The last step is interpretation – this is where we assign meaning to what we just organized. We base “interpretation of the data” on what we expect or what is familiar.
The following also influence our perceptions:
1. Motive – our activities are based on specific needs : 1) Physiological needs, 2) safety needs, 3) social needs, 4) esteem needs, 5) self-actualization needs.
2. Learning – how our behavior may change due to information and experience
3. Attitude – our enduring evaluation of, feeling about and behavioral tendencies towards an object or idea. Attitudes tend to remain more constant – but do not have equal impact at any one time, some attitudes are stronger than others. They are also acquired through experience and interaction. Attitude consists of three major components: cognitive (knowledge about the object), affective (feelings and emotions toward the idea) and behavioral (actions regarding it). For example – if you work in an emergency room and see gun-shot victims on a regular basis and know in depth what guns due to people, this will in turn affect your feelings towards guns in general and behavior towards the concept of gun control. Same thing about violence or torture on TV. If you have personal knowledge or experience with torture, this will affect your feelings towards seeing it portrayed, and in turn how you react to its portrayal.
4. Personality – internal traits and distinct behavioral tendencies that result in consistent patterns of behavior in certain situations. (Self-concept – is the person’s view or perception of themselves).
5. Lifestyle – our pattern of living expressed through activities, interests, and opinions. This includes how we choose to spend our time, the extent we interact with others, and our general outlook on life and living. Lifestyle is affected by demographic factors such as age, education, income, ethnicity, and social class. Also may be determined by geographical factors and personality.
Social class is defined as – an open group of individuals with similar social rank.
6. Reference Group – a group that positively or negatively affects our values, attitudes or behavior.
Each of these factors affect how we watch Television programs such as Angel the Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. How we view the commercials that show up during them. What we remember or retain after each viewing as well as our behavior before, during and after each episode.
For example: Some people may want to know if an episode is good before they spend time watching it – they want external reassurance, so they may read a review of the episode or a wildfeed summary. Others may want to ensure that they see the episode fresh, complete with suspense, so they avoid summaries and reviews prior to seeing a movie or watching a tv-show. They want to minimize the outside information affecting their opinion of the show. Some may take notes during the episode, some may just watch it and comment later, some may tape and re-watch several times, while still others may watch, tape and download the shooting script to read.
What our interests are – also affect our viewing:
1. Psychologist, student of psychology or someone with an interest in psychology – may view a movie or show, categorizing everything psychologically. Depending on the type of psychology they studied – they may use words such as sociopath, narcissist, psychopath, victim, etc. Or they may use Jungian terms such as shadow, anima, animus, self-actualization, and so on.
2. Mythologist – may be more interested in using the terms “trickster”, “fool”, “shadow (also works in mythology)”, beast, and be interested in comparing the characters and story to mythological works
3. Catholic? – the catechism, moral views and laws,
5. Lawyer – how the law determines each characters crimes, and the possible defenses
6. An English Literature Professor – comparing it to whatever works they are studying.
(Etc...)
How we organize and interpret data has a lot to do with who we are, our past experiences, how we’ve been taught, and our beliefs. The wonder and frustration of interacting on the internet is we really have no idea, unless someone tells us, what those past experiences, demographics, teachings, beliefs, etc of the person we are communicating with are. But we can safely assume that it is more likely they will “not” share our perceptions of the show and when we both sit down, whether it be weeks apart, hours, countries or in the same room at the same time – we will not perceive the show, movie, book, radio program in the same way or retain the same things from it.
That said, I’ve come up with a little challenge, should anyone choose to take me up on it. If someone does? The forum is Atpo or live journal or just direct me to the board you've chosen to post it on. Can you write an essay or post defending a character or relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series, which you don’t like, don’t care about, or can’t abide? For example – if you aren’t fond of Fred – your challenge would be to write an essay or post defending the character, defending her attributes, showing how valuable she is to the show and what you believe her story arc may be. Another example – if you can’t abide the B/S or B/A relationships, think they are dead in the water, absolutely hate or don’t care about them – can you write a post or essay supporting the relationship and proving it is not dead and actually was worthwhile? A post that someone who does love that relationship would respond favorably to without thinking you were making fun of them? (That's how you can tell if you succeeded if someone who likes the character or relationship responds favorably.)
Parodies and Satires are against the point of the exercise, so anyone accepting the challenge including myself – is prohibited from doing it that way. The point is to attempt to place myself for a few moments in someone else’s perspective, to try and see something from another, possibly foreign point of view. Yes, it may be impossible. But in a way, by doing it, it helps me see how someone else may view the world which in turn makes it more possible for me to negotiate and interact with them. So I guess my challenge, assuming I find the time what with this marketing plan I have to write, researching licensing companies and firms, studying for a test, reading three books, and applying for jobs, is can I write an essay that defends the Buffy/Angel relationship to nay-sayers and proves that it is not dead in the water and can be and should be resurrected? (A better question is can I find the time to do it?) Hmmm...not sure this is such a hot idea any more seems sort of lame after thinking about it...feel free to ignore, may eventually delete.
Next week I have a mid-term for my Marketing class and to prepare for it, I’ve been hastily reading assigned chapters in a book by Pride and Ferrell called Marketing Concepts and Strategies, which in of itself isn’t really worth posting about in live journal. Who gives a crap about my Marketing class? But chapter 8 deals with Consumer Buying Behavior and smack dab in the middle of a chapter discussing situational factors and other business terms, there’s a nifty little section on Psychological Influences on Buying Decision Process, which in turn discusses Perception. While reading it I was struck by how clearly it explained the differing fan responses that can lead to literal battles over a television show. Why two person can watch exactly the same show on TV yet react so differently to it – to the extent that it’s almost as if they saw two different shows, each believing that their version is the correct one.
The chapter starts with a black and white picture of fish and birds above the ocean. The caption beside the picture asks: Do you see the fish changing into birds or the birds changing into fish? One person may see birds turning into fish. Another fish turning into birds. A third just fish and birds with no change occurring. What each person sees depends on how they view the world, different people perceive the same thing at the same time in different ways.
Perception, according to Pride and Ferrell, is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. Information inputs are sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch. And perception is a three-step process. Although we perceive many things at once – only a few reach our awareness. For instance if you are reading this entry, concentrating on it, you may not be aware of the cars buzzing outside, your kids arguing in the background, your co-workers typing or on the phone in the cubicle next to you – even though you are receiving these inputs, they do not reach your awareness until they are pointed out. What our current needs are at a given time – is often what we focus on or what reaches our awareness. If for instance our current need is to walk across the street – our awareness will be focused on what is directly in our path or preventing us from crossing the street. If we are merely wandering around town in no hurry, we may be aware of what is blocking our path across the street, but be more focused on the fact that there is a kid playing with chalk on the sidewalk.
(What follows is lengthy discourse on how we perceive information and why from a marketing/broadcast perspective, includes a silly challenge...read at own risk ;-))
Selective nature of perception can be broken down into/or explained by two conditions:
1. Selective Distortion – this is when we twist the information we see so that it remains consistent with our personal beliefs or feelings. In marketing this occurs when someone perceives a commercial where their favorite brand is depicting doing poorly against an unknown or disliked brand. They may distort what they see to fit their prior views. It also happens when we watch a tv show, if a character we despise is shown in a positive light, we may distort what we perceive in order to maintain the prior view, particularly if we feel passionately about the character. Same thing happens if a character we loved is shown in a negative light. Examples: how viewers responded to Seeing Red and Dead Things. Other examples: how viewers respond to the characters of Angel and Spike. (One viewer will claim their view is the correct one while the other viewers is distorted. But truth is? Both views may be.)
2. Selective Retention – a person remembers information inputs that support personal feelings and beliefs and forgets inputs that do not. Basically we remember what we want to remember.
The next step is how we organize the data that we’ve perceived. When watching a television show or a commercial – the information that comes to our isn’t always organized, it’s received in pieces. We get images, we get sound, we get external sounds and images that have nothing to do with the program, commercial breaks, etc – to produce meaning we mentally organize and integrate the new information with what is already stored. We use different methods to organize data – one method is called “closure” – which occurs when someone mentally fills in missing elements in a pattern or statement. We also sometimes use an internal indexing system – placing situations we see alongside situations we’ve experienced before.
The last step is interpretation – this is where we assign meaning to what we just organized. We base “interpretation of the data” on what we expect or what is familiar.
The following also influence our perceptions:
1. Motive – our activities are based on specific needs : 1) Physiological needs, 2) safety needs, 3) social needs, 4) esteem needs, 5) self-actualization needs.
2. Learning – how our behavior may change due to information and experience
3. Attitude – our enduring evaluation of, feeling about and behavioral tendencies towards an object or idea. Attitudes tend to remain more constant – but do not have equal impact at any one time, some attitudes are stronger than others. They are also acquired through experience and interaction. Attitude consists of three major components: cognitive (knowledge about the object), affective (feelings and emotions toward the idea) and behavioral (actions regarding it). For example – if you work in an emergency room and see gun-shot victims on a regular basis and know in depth what guns due to people, this will in turn affect your feelings towards guns in general and behavior towards the concept of gun control. Same thing about violence or torture on TV. If you have personal knowledge or experience with torture, this will affect your feelings towards seeing it portrayed, and in turn how you react to its portrayal.
4. Personality – internal traits and distinct behavioral tendencies that result in consistent patterns of behavior in certain situations. (Self-concept – is the person’s view or perception of themselves).
5. Lifestyle – our pattern of living expressed through activities, interests, and opinions. This includes how we choose to spend our time, the extent we interact with others, and our general outlook on life and living. Lifestyle is affected by demographic factors such as age, education, income, ethnicity, and social class. Also may be determined by geographical factors and personality.
Social class is defined as – an open group of individuals with similar social rank.
6. Reference Group – a group that positively or negatively affects our values, attitudes or behavior.
Each of these factors affect how we watch Television programs such as Angel the Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. How we view the commercials that show up during them. What we remember or retain after each viewing as well as our behavior before, during and after each episode.
For example: Some people may want to know if an episode is good before they spend time watching it – they want external reassurance, so they may read a review of the episode or a wildfeed summary. Others may want to ensure that they see the episode fresh, complete with suspense, so they avoid summaries and reviews prior to seeing a movie or watching a tv-show. They want to minimize the outside information affecting their opinion of the show. Some may take notes during the episode, some may just watch it and comment later, some may tape and re-watch several times, while still others may watch, tape and download the shooting script to read.
What our interests are – also affect our viewing:
1. Psychologist, student of psychology or someone with an interest in psychology – may view a movie or show, categorizing everything psychologically. Depending on the type of psychology they studied – they may use words such as sociopath, narcissist, psychopath, victim, etc. Or they may use Jungian terms such as shadow, anima, animus, self-actualization, and so on.
2. Mythologist – may be more interested in using the terms “trickster”, “fool”, “shadow (also works in mythology)”, beast, and be interested in comparing the characters and story to mythological works
3. Catholic? – the catechism, moral views and laws,
5. Lawyer – how the law determines each characters crimes, and the possible defenses
6. An English Literature Professor – comparing it to whatever works they are studying.
(Etc...)
How we organize and interpret data has a lot to do with who we are, our past experiences, how we’ve been taught, and our beliefs. The wonder and frustration of interacting on the internet is we really have no idea, unless someone tells us, what those past experiences, demographics, teachings, beliefs, etc of the person we are communicating with are. But we can safely assume that it is more likely they will “not” share our perceptions of the show and when we both sit down, whether it be weeks apart, hours, countries or in the same room at the same time – we will not perceive the show, movie, book, radio program in the same way or retain the same things from it.
That said, I’ve come up with a little challenge, should anyone choose to take me up on it. If someone does? The forum is Atpo or live journal or just direct me to the board you've chosen to post it on. Can you write an essay or post defending a character or relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series, which you don’t like, don’t care about, or can’t abide? For example – if you aren’t fond of Fred – your challenge would be to write an essay or post defending the character, defending her attributes, showing how valuable she is to the show and what you believe her story arc may be. Another example – if you can’t abide the B/S or B/A relationships, think they are dead in the water, absolutely hate or don’t care about them – can you write a post or essay supporting the relationship and proving it is not dead and actually was worthwhile? A post that someone who does love that relationship would respond favorably to without thinking you were making fun of them? (That's how you can tell if you succeeded if someone who likes the character or relationship responds favorably.)
Parodies and Satires are against the point of the exercise, so anyone accepting the challenge including myself – is prohibited from doing it that way. The point is to attempt to place myself for a few moments in someone else’s perspective, to try and see something from another, possibly foreign point of view. Yes, it may be impossible. But in a way, by doing it, it helps me see how someone else may view the world which in turn makes it more possible for me to negotiate and interact with them. So I guess my challenge, assuming I find the time what with this marketing plan I have to write, researching licensing companies and firms, studying for a test, reading three books, and applying for jobs, is can I write an essay that defends the Buffy/Angel relationship to nay-sayers and proves that it is not dead in the water and can be and should be resurrected? (A better question is can I find the time to do it?) Hmmm...not sure this is such a hot idea any more seems sort of lame after thinking about it...feel free to ignore, may eventually delete.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Perception and A Challenge
Date: 2003-10-23 02:21 pm (UTC)It's also strangely comforting. Like you, I find that my emotions (dealing with the internet fandom) sometimes get the better of me. People push my buttons, sometimes unwittingly. It helps in turning the other cheek when we can see that it isn't always about "us" vs. "them" or "me" vs. "all-those-people-I-vehemently-disagree-with-and-must-therefore-be-evil-morons."
Our individual experiences may not be unique, but the sum total of those experiences are, and that makes for a more interesting, if sometimes volatile, world (fandom or otherwise).
Recently, I've been thinking that we agree so often because we're both structuralists. We look at an episode and we break it down or take it apart to understand it. So, we're always looking for patterns, themes, the underlying architecture, that sort of thing because we're looking for order in art, as we do in life.
So shows like BtVS & AtS appeal to us because they're artfully constructed and we can find order AND emotional resonance in these stories. Well, I wanted to discuss this more but I've been interrupted repeatedly by clients (the nerve!), so must run off to work for awhile!
Alice
Re: Perception and A Challenge
Date: 2003-10-23 10:58 pm (UTC)Recently, I've been thinking that we agree so often because we're both structuralists. We look at an episode and we break it down or take it apart to understand it. So, we're always looking for patterns, themes, the underlying architecture, that sort of thing because we're looking for order in art, as we do in life.
So shows like BtVS & AtS appeal to us because they're artfully constructed and we can find order AND emotional resonance in these stories.
Wow, I hadn't thought of that. But I think you're right. It's how I think, when I watch, read, study or listen to something - the way I organize the data is by hunting a pattern or theme or the underlying architecture. I hunt for how the characters respond to each other and how that links back to past episodes. The structure of the story, the structure of each character's emotional arc is what fascinates me, not the final outcome. If the show regresses or in some way betrays that arc or structure, I'm disappointed.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-24 03:33 am (UTC)Yep, Cheating
Date: 2003-10-24 01:12 pm (UTC)That said, I'd love to read Spike and Grecian Urn post, don't remember it.
If makes you feel any better? I don't think I could write a positive post about LMPTM right now, I certainly can't read any posts on the topic. I can't re-watch the episode. I didn't like how it was written. I didn't like the themes addressed. And found the subtext to be somewhat offensive. David Fury isn't a subtle enough writer in my opinion to handle a topic as dicey as Lies. But then? I didn't like any of the episodes that came after Never Leave Me. Seven 7 simply did not work for me structurally or metaphorically.
I much preferred Season 6.
Re: Yep, Cheating
Date: 2003-10-25 08:13 am (UTC)I was reading some of your comments on Masq's journal about Angel and Spike's complexity, and how much you dreaded the fan reaction to LMPTM. When the ep aired, I was surprised that non of the Spike fans said "the writers made him too harsh, they totally misjudged it". Because that's what i would have said were I not so invested in the situation. I think what got my goat with some of what Buffy and Spike did in S7 was that it was so defended and justified, even when I felt it was unjustifiable. Rather than part of a complex character arc.
I think I often felt, watching S7, that Spike with a chip and no soul was a far kinder, nicer and funnier character.
Repost...Part 1
Date: 2003-10-25 08:15 am (UTC)"Although Yeats saw and felt around himself the unchangeable order of dying and fading of temporary things, he was looking for something what wouldn't be affected by this change, the immortality and eternity. That was the world where the imagination comes from. He said that the world of imagination is just the eternal world, in opposite to the world of reason, which is the world of lies and cheat, phantasm falling apart."
I really commented on this on another thread - he connects to Sidney's idea that the Poet can show a better, artificial world than the real world. Sidney commented in his 'Defence of Poesy' that only the poet could lead men to see the real, 'Platonic' world. That the artificial work, the 'golden bird' of Yeats' Sailing to Byzantium is better than the real bird. This is a counter point to Hans Christian Anderson's story, where the emperor orders the creation of an artificial bird, which in the end proves unsatisfactory. The artificial bird may sing sweetly, on command, but it cannot surpass the bird song which first opened the imagination of the emperor in those woods......
Those woods, characterised thus by Keats:
"The weariness, the fever, the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan
Where palsy shakes a few, last, grey hairs,
Where youth grows pale and spectre thin and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden eyed despairs;
Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes
Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow"
How startling this verse is, when placed next to 'Bargaining'. That hell, where Buffy is dragged back into, where they all get lost in the woods of death, decay, mortality, life.
Keats sees intoxication (magic, wine, poetry) as an escape. But a dangerous escape, because it is almost suicidal.
"Darkling I listen and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death
Called him soft names with many a mused rhyme
To take into the air my quiet breath
Now more than ever it seems rich to die
To cease upon the midnight with no pain"
Buffy more than most has been 'half in love with easeful death', whereas it has been Willow who has been drunk on magic, flying off to new worlds on viewless wings.
So imagination, magic can be dangerous, and beautiful. The world of Sunnydale, the land of imagination can be dangerous, can burn up its inhabitants.
In Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats talks of the fire that consumes:
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Ringing any bells for anyone? The fire that acts as the 'singing masters of my soul'.
Again, that warning that art, the artifice of eternity, the guaranteer of a poet's immortality is a double edged sword.
The irony is, the thing that undercuts the misery of Season 6 is that it is artificial misery, the misery of art. This is the promise of Sweet as he mocks us. Cry for Buffy, but she isn't real. Experience your pain and joy watching a tv programme, but remember that you're singing someone else's song. He's the king, and we just dance his dance and sing his songs.
So the narrative will win, Buffy will recover, she will conquer her pain, Spike will find his redemption, Dawn will discover her true powers, Xander will gain his heart, Anya her forgiveness, but remember:
"Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music: do I wake or sleep?"
(Guess I found that Buffy link after all!)
Repost Part 2
Date: 2003-10-25 08:16 am (UTC)The highest pitch of this Romantic ideal can be found in Keats who wrote wonderful, ecstatic poetry and died when he was 25. Having nursed his younger brother throughout his terminal illness, he was obsessed with the ideas of death and mortality, ideas which seem very relevant in viewing Vampires, as walking graves. They have eternal life, but as Adam points out in Season 4, this just makes their fear of death even more potent.
Keat's, and his brother died of consumption, which, famously involves the coughing up of blood, and consumption is a very Romantic illness, and is 'all about the blood'. The heroine of La Traviata dies of consumption. The imagery of blood which signifies both life, and death and mortality in the round is highly potent - this why Vampires are such a powerful metaphor, and why these creatures of death in the Buffyverse seem so potent, and so alive - they drink of the very stuff of life and death.
The Vampire, as has been noted by many posters here, notably Age and Rufus, are arrested teenagers, adolescents, always on the brink of high emotion.
In Ode to a Grecian Urn, Keat's celebration of the immortality of art, he says, talking of the scenes depicted on the vase:
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone,
Fair youth beneath the trees, thou cans't not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never can'st thou kiss
Though winning near the goal - yet do not grieve
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love and she be fair!"
The two lovers of the Grecian urn are stuck, in their passionate, frozen love, reminding me of James and Elizabeth in Hearthrob. Where an unchanging, frozen love is prized above a changing, human, mortal one.
But Vampires exist in a world, Sunnydale, where things are in constant flux, whether it be Gods or Keys, or just plain mortal death, love, marriage, life. Nothing around them stands still, but themselves. So they become casualties of Buffy who seems to represent the force of life itself. Both her relationships with Vampires was shown to be highly passionate, but doomed. Her affair with Angel could never be consummated without danger - they are forced to stand apart. Her affair with Spike disturbed dangerous emotions in both.
Significantly this season, Angel has 'grown up' become an adult in the fullest sense by having a son. Though ironically, he's stuck motionless at the bottom of the ocean this summer. Spike entered the Crucible of change and has come out, who knows what?
So there appears to be three options for a vampires, in the world of Sunnydale - forever frozen, to turn back into the ashes and dust of death (I will show you fear in a handful of dust) or to truly change and grow up.
Re: Yep, Cheating
Date: 2003-10-25 08:38 am (UTC)I think people were feeling too defensive at the time. But in retrospect? I did feel that way. Very much so. I think two episodes that could have been brilliant - were written too harshly were Seeing Red and LMPTM. SR at least got resolved, the character's arc was complex, and I could forgive them for it because I got Beneath You and the scene with Clem. LMPTM? Never got resolved, the arc was dropped - I never got a pay off. I didn't express it well, but LMPTM bothered me. They painted the characters so harshly, without ever resolving the harshness. It would have been much better - if we got a follow-up episode - if somewhere down the line, we had a Giles/spike scene or a Giles/buffy or something, maybe a Wood/Giles even? Buffy never seemed to deal with the coat issue. If you bring it up? Can you at least address it? Ugh. Someday i'll write a live journal entry ranting about Fury and LMPTM. ;-) I felt Spike, Giles and Buffy had serious issues that came out in that episode that were just dropped.
In many ways I preferred Spike and Buffy in S6, when they were darker. On ATS, Spike is actually more interesting than he was in the Second part of S7, after the FE caught him. Lies, I can't put my finger on it - but both Giles and Spike felt completely off to me, almost as if the writers were manipulating them like puppets to get them to further a theme as opposed to having the theme come naturally through them. I think the episode may have worked much better if Wood was removed from it and it had been a confrontation between Giles and Spike. If it had been Giles pushing Spike's buttons. But the writers were obsessed with the whole sick mother/martyr idea which frankly annoyed the heck out of me. I also would have preferred Spike lose the coat - and adopt a new costume, but I'm in the minority on that one, apparently. I think - they were so determined to differentiate Spike having a soul from Angel having a soul - that they kept playing with different persona's for him. Instead of just letting the character show them the way.
These look really good!
Date: 2003-10-25 08:54 am (UTC)Thanks!