Buffy Meta - The Body - Tough Love (Willow, Fathers, Spike, Angel, and Giles)

Took a nice long walk around 12:30 pm to the esplanade in Brooklyn - which overlooks the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Possibly amongst the best views in the city. Read for a bit, although have to admit to being a stuck in my latest novel reading attempt. Was plowing through Stephen King's The Stand until about page 259, where out of the blue the writer decides to introduce a bunch of new characters. Not very nice or interesting characters. And a lot of gory violence. Now, I'm just bored and a bit aggravated. We'll see if I make it through this book. I may end up scanning half of it. Also read a little of this Book Forum magazine that I picked up at RocketShip along with the latest Buffy comic. Not bad. A bit on the pretentious side, but all book review magazines are, with the possible exception of Publisher's Weekly.

Also, watched Intervention and Tough Love this morning, after seeing The Body and Forever the night before. [For some bizarre reason I keep wanting to call "Tough Love" - "Touched". Makes no sense. Since Intervention and Tough Love actually mean the same thing or are often used interchangably.]

Noticed the following: 1)There's a huge mother/father arc in this season - more so than in any season since maybe Season 3. But here it is about losing the father and mother, about moving past them and becoming a parent yourself. A responsible adult. Learning how to care for someone - but not in a romantic sort of way. 2) An at times brutal and at other times merely snarky critique of the gothic romance tropes that appear in books such as the Twilight books, Daphne Du Maurier's fiction, Bronte's, Anne Rice, Charlian Harris, LK Hamilton, and a lot of fanfiction. 3) There's an additional theme about caring about someone other than yourself - about being selfless. And whether humans are truly capable of this type of love. 4) Both paternal and maternal world orders have flaws. Neither order nor chaos works.


1. The Body and Forever - Losing a parent is forever, however they may go.
Mothers and Fathers.
( The Body - Losing Mom )

This brings me to...
( Forever - the father who always leaves, a study of inept fathers, Spike, Angel, Hank and Giles. Also a bit on spells. )

2. Intervention and Tough Love - sacrifice and vengeance...love's at it's best and worst.
( Intervention - Spike's climatic turning point in the series, death is your gift, and the critique of the gothic romance trope )

( Tough Love - Willow climatic turning point in the series - where she chooses to begin her descent into dark magic. )