(no subject)
Jun. 7th, 2015 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Watching the Tony's, which are boring me. Come back, Neil Patrick Harris, come back!
Also, Fun Home reminds me a lot of Next to Normal, while American in Paris reminds me of Singing in the Rain and On the Town. Something Rotten seems sort of different...But nothing is really grabbing me. Which is a good thing -- since I can't afford to go to the plays being honored at the Tony's.
2. They are adapting Neil Gaiman's Sandman for film. Joseph Gordon-Levit is doing it. Gaiman's one requirement was that there is no punching. Sandman does not punch people.
3. Five things that did not work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or made you scratch your head or fanwank the hell out of them. This occurred to me over the weekend...via circumstances that are better left unsaid.
* The Buffy Cookie Dough Speech. This is the speech in the beginning of Chosen that the writer inserted to, as he explained in the commentary, to justify the heroine's jump from one vampire lover to another. Except that's not the speech. The speech is - how Buffy can't commit to a meaningful relationship with a vampire, cursed with a soul, who heads an evil law firm, and has just brought her a mystical amulet from the law firm, because...she's unbaked cookie dough and unready for a deep relationship with anyone. And you know, maybe one day, she'll be mature enough to commit to a guy who can lose his soul at any moment and slaughter all her friends or will manipulate them to his own ends, without necessarily losing his soul.
* The Scythe -- this is the mystical weapon that Buffy is told to hunt down in the last five episodes and drops into the story out of the blue. It is in a rock. And only the slayer, the chosen one, can remove it from the rock a la King Arthur. The weapon is an ax and a stake - sort of double duty vampire killing - because a stake just isn't that useful against the old deformed vamps. The only ones who can explain the Scythe are The Guardians...who appear out of nowhere in a tomb in the Cemetery. Which apparently is so huge that Buffy never bumped into them until now. But now that she has, coincidentally so does the villain, Spike and Angel. As if suddenly there's a huge target over it.
* Apparently there's an ancient box revealing the orgins of the Slayer - which only Nikki Wood's Watcher had, and was passed down to her son, Robin. Not any of the new slayers or their watchers. And the legend isn't known by anyone but Nikki's Watcher and the magical box.
*The Demon Eggs in AYW: Spike, who is unable to remove his chip or fend for himself and is constantly making deals with Buffy and her gang for money, not to mention helping them, and now in debt to a land shark, out of the blue is a major arms dealer -- called the Doctor. And is hiding nasty monster eggs in his crypt, even though Buffy and all her friends visit him all the time and without knocking. Somehow they never notice the eggs. Or that he is the Doctor. Yet, Riley and his wife manage to track the monsters to Spike's lair within 24 hours of their arrival in Sunnydale.
* The AR Scene in Seeing Red: 1)Buffy's mysterious back injury in Seeing Red - after fighting off Hyena!Xander, being staked by a vamp, fighting Spike when he wanted to kill her and getting the better of him, fighting and beating Angelus, fighting Glory, and not to mention falling from various heights - Buffy injures her back when she falls against a headstone. As if she'd never had this happen before? Keep in mind this woman was thrust up against the wall of a building that fell around her, while having sex.
2) Spike enters Buffy's bathroom. Not her bedroom. Or any other place, but the "bathroom" which to date we've never seen. 3) Buffy is depicted as weak and not super-strong in most of the scene, then suddenly is...
And if that one didn't work for you...
* In S7 Spike is tortured with drowning, can't see in the dark, and has a reflection. While Angel is doing quite well six feet under, can see in the dark, and doesn't have reflection. Did Spike become somewhat human when he got his soul?
[Since this is being pimped, I'm going to shamelessly tout my book "Doing Time on Planet Earth", it's a work of fiction - which you can go buy HERE.]
Also, Fun Home reminds me a lot of Next to Normal, while American in Paris reminds me of Singing in the Rain and On the Town. Something Rotten seems sort of different...But nothing is really grabbing me. Which is a good thing -- since I can't afford to go to the plays being honored at the Tony's.
2. They are adapting Neil Gaiman's Sandman for film. Joseph Gordon-Levit is doing it. Gaiman's one requirement was that there is no punching. Sandman does not punch people.
3. Five things that did not work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or made you scratch your head or fanwank the hell out of them. This occurred to me over the weekend...via circumstances that are better left unsaid.
* The Buffy Cookie Dough Speech. This is the speech in the beginning of Chosen that the writer inserted to, as he explained in the commentary, to justify the heroine's jump from one vampire lover to another. Except that's not the speech. The speech is - how Buffy can't commit to a meaningful relationship with a vampire, cursed with a soul, who heads an evil law firm, and has just brought her a mystical amulet from the law firm, because...she's unbaked cookie dough and unready for a deep relationship with anyone. And you know, maybe one day, she'll be mature enough to commit to a guy who can lose his soul at any moment and slaughter all her friends or will manipulate them to his own ends, without necessarily losing his soul.
* The Scythe -- this is the mystical weapon that Buffy is told to hunt down in the last five episodes and drops into the story out of the blue. It is in a rock. And only the slayer, the chosen one, can remove it from the rock a la King Arthur. The weapon is an ax and a stake - sort of double duty vampire killing - because a stake just isn't that useful against the old deformed vamps. The only ones who can explain the Scythe are The Guardians...who appear out of nowhere in a tomb in the Cemetery. Which apparently is so huge that Buffy never bumped into them until now. But now that she has, coincidentally so does the villain, Spike and Angel. As if suddenly there's a huge target over it.
* Apparently there's an ancient box revealing the orgins of the Slayer - which only Nikki Wood's Watcher had, and was passed down to her son, Robin. Not any of the new slayers or their watchers. And the legend isn't known by anyone but Nikki's Watcher and the magical box.
*The Demon Eggs in AYW: Spike, who is unable to remove his chip or fend for himself and is constantly making deals with Buffy and her gang for money, not to mention helping them, and now in debt to a land shark, out of the blue is a major arms dealer -- called the Doctor. And is hiding nasty monster eggs in his crypt, even though Buffy and all her friends visit him all the time and without knocking. Somehow they never notice the eggs. Or that he is the Doctor. Yet, Riley and his wife manage to track the monsters to Spike's lair within 24 hours of their arrival in Sunnydale.
* The AR Scene in Seeing Red: 1)Buffy's mysterious back injury in Seeing Red - after fighting off Hyena!Xander, being staked by a vamp, fighting Spike when he wanted to kill her and getting the better of him, fighting and beating Angelus, fighting Glory, and not to mention falling from various heights - Buffy injures her back when she falls against a headstone. As if she'd never had this happen before? Keep in mind this woman was thrust up against the wall of a building that fell around her, while having sex.
2) Spike enters Buffy's bathroom. Not her bedroom. Or any other place, but the "bathroom" which to date we've never seen. 3) Buffy is depicted as weak and not super-strong in most of the scene, then suddenly is...
And if that one didn't work for you...
* In S7 Spike is tortured with drowning, can't see in the dark, and has a reflection. While Angel is doing quite well six feet under, can see in the dark, and doesn't have reflection. Did Spike become somewhat human when he got his soul?
[Since this is being pimped, I'm going to shamelessly tout my book "Doing Time on Planet Earth", it's a work of fiction - which you can go buy HERE.]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-06-08 09:54 pm (UTC)1) It was introduced in an earlier episode, so available and they didn't have to find it.
2) It didn't save the day or wasn't the magical device to end all.
The Scythe (unless you were reading the Fray comic books and considered them canon to the television series) came out of nowhere. And was allegedly the magical device to end all devices. Which no one had ever mentioned until the last four episodes of S7. Olaf's Hammar in contrast, was well, just another item on a laundry list in The Gift - and a bit of joke, which by the way Whedon uses again in The Avenger's with Thor's hammer. It's actually the same joke.
I'm less forgiving of AYW, although I do see your point - and that is why the writer's did it. But, it doesn't work from a plot standpoint or in relation to Spike. Riley, yes. I had no problem with how Riley or Sam were presented, although the acting was incredibly wooden (I blame the director for that). But I just can't see Spike becoming an international arms dealer while he's busy saving the world, and mooning after Buffy and cheating at kitten poker etc. Also, wouldn't someone have noticed? It was a bit too absurd...they should have built it up better than they did. You could tell the writers came up with that plot-line as they were writing that episode. But didn't bother to lay the groundwork. (Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that I can't see Spike as an international arms dealer or doing any of that. But not based on what was shown to us. It was sloppy.)
At any rate, I agree with your assessment of Whedon...he said himself that he was burned out on Buffy. And I think that was true. Also, upset over the cancellation of Firefly. So...he got sloppy. Although most of his stuff post Buffy has felt sloppy to me, so maybe that's just the writer, without a really good writing partner/ editor?