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shadowkatHad today off - since it's MLK's Birthday. (It's also a day of service, but alas, I'm being insanely lazy and resting my knees.)
Found out last night that my niece passed her EMT training and is a now a certified EMT. Also she may end up in Georgia at some point in May, with a course on how to prevent fires by setting them (burning off brush). My lovely niece is well on the way towards her goal of becoming a forest ranger. It's actually easier to protect trees than people. People are difficult. So, I'm glad she shifted from human rights to environmental protection and forestry.
I'm really enjoying my re-watch of Buffy and Angel. The later seasons hold up better than the earlier ones do - partly because the later seasons were done in the early 00s and not the late 1990s. So while there's still the errant - "I ran like a girl" - the other characters snort at it.
Season 7 and Season 4 Angel actually have some well-written episodes in there. Deep Down - S4 Angel, where Wes searches the ocean for Angel and rescues him, and Angel, Gunn and Fred confront Connor is a good episode. And Wes has become very interesting.
Also, the first episodes of S7 are really good. I find the series more entertaining now than I did when I initially watched it. Maybe because while I don't remember most of the details, I remember the final result, so don't have quite the same anticipation or worry that I had when I first watched it - when it aired for the first time in 1997-2003. Also, I'm not as invested in the romantic "ships"? I know they are all doomed. So, it's comforting in a way it wasn't back then. And, I'm not trying to figure out where it is going, or pulling it apart like a puzzle to figure out what will happen next. There's something to be said for not over-analyzing the plots of television shows?
Buffy S7 Takeaways?
* Buffy and Xander are firmly just friends. (Item of note - back in the day, the actors tried to convince the show-runners to put Buffy and Xander together as a couple, but it was nixed. Makes sense - it goes against the story-thread, and there's no sexual chemistry between the two actors. Also, Whedon would have had to kill off Xander, which he'd already been successfully talked out of doing twice. They also flirted with putting Buffy with Wood, but Gellar talked them out of that one - mainly because she didn't want them to kill off Wood. She liked the actor. They were going to kill off anyone paired with Buffy that season. Spike actually works best in that respect.)
* I actually like Robin Wood and the actor. The actor is hilarious. I never realized how funny he actually was. He's funny in Lucifer too, actually.
There's this great exchange in Lessons.
Buffy: Hello, oh yes, (looks up at Wood), sorry it's my dog..dog walker.
Three dead?
Wood: Your dogs are dead? All three of them?
Buffy: Yeah, got to run.
Wood: Okay...good luck with the dog tragedy??
The writers must have issues with dogs? Because in Episode 2, Beneath Me, the guest of the week's dog is eaten by a demon. And both Anya and Spike are upset by it.
* I guess Head only would allow the film crew at the edge of his property in North London? Because they are outside sitting under a tree. And that's all we get. No inside shoots at all. We do get Giles riding a horse.
[Whedon figured out a way to have more Giles in S7 without making Head film in LA the whole time.]
* Spike definitely created the tailsman at the First's prompting in Lessons. That's why they don't tell us who did it - because Spike more or less admits to it. He tells Buffy what it is in Lessons and how to get rid of the ghosts. And in Beneath Me, he apologizes and says when she saw him last, he was bit crazy with the ghosts getting in his head and making him do things he shouldn't. Buffy assumes he's talking about the corporeal ghosts that she thought. No - it's actually the dead villains, and Buffy herself that he sees at the end.
* The litany of villains at the end of Lessons, morphing one into the next - with the final one being Buffy herself. The idea of evil being in everyone and we all fight it every day. And each episode has the characters discussing evil. And what it means. Dawn sees it in black and white terms, people or things are either good or evil. But Buffy and Xander, now adults, no longer do, and realize its more complicated than that.
* In Lessons when Spike says he tried to cut it out - he's referring to his soul of course, but Buffy thinks he's referring to his undead heart. (Which he kept referring to in previous seasons.)
* Anya, Willow, and Spike - the three characters that kind of went off the rails or off the deep end at the end of S6, help each other come back again from the brink in their own ways. Or at least pick up on things about one another before Dawn/Xander and Buffy do. Anya sees the soul in Spike. Spike understands the type of demon Anya unleashed. Both Anya and Spike see Willow, and figure out Willow did something. It's nicely done - more subtle, and nothing too obvious or overly melodramatic.
* In Beneath Me - Buffy is both moved, and saddened by the fact that Spike got a soul. She knows what it means. And from Angel what it most likely meant for a vampire to seek it. She's crying when she finally connects the dots, which to be fair to Buffy aren't easy to do - Spike doesn't exactly spell it out. He's a poet and has been speaking poetically since she found him. Going insane has made him wax poetical. Angel draws, Spike creates poetry. Buffy fell in love with two artists. It's not until Spike mentions that Angel hid it well in his poetic speech, that she begins to put it together. The spark is a soul, the thing that connects him to everything around him. "Aren't we in a sodden engine?" - the Church. When she asks why - he's like, for you, to be yours. He did it so she would be able to love him, only to realize that that's not really what was keeping her from loving him. He doesn't get it until he gets the soul - and the realization and the why is devastating, along with the knowledge of everything he's done. He's ashamed. He went to get a soul - because he hurt her, and wanted to prove he's worth of her love - only to discover that he's done far worse and he's not worthy, and it's not because of what he did or attempted to do with her over the years. (Honestly the attempted sexual assault is nothing. Just as what Angelus did to Buffy in S2 is nothing. Both vampires know that.) It's an impossible romance anyway you cut it.
* Anya looks better as a brunette, the actress has the wrong coloring for blond. I feel sorry for Anya. Although, I think Xander was right to call of the wedding. Anya was defining herself around Xander. Now, that she's back to being a vengeance demon - her hearts not in it. She wanted to hurt Xander, not anyone else. And keeps trying to avoid doing vengeance. It is made clear by Halfrek that Anya was the worst vengeance demon back in the day - and managed to cause more slaughter and havoc than any other. (Remember she was responsible for the Wish World in S3 and has created other realities, including that one.)
Xander is being forced to deal with the fact that Buffy's not the only one who was dating someone dangerous, who'd done evil things.
And Angel S4 is more enjoyable than I remembered. It's kind of obvious though that the writers are writing out Cordelia. Also that Whedon really did not like how Greenwalt wrote her out in S3. I agree with Whedon - Cordy's ending in S3 made no sense and doesn't work. It also felt like a plot contrivance to keep her and Angel apart, and to have Angel go down while Cordy went up. My difficulty with S3 was the Cordelia arc - it starts to go off the rails there. It's fine up until Birthday. After Birthday, it gets silly, and then she's gone, and when she returns - she doesn't add all that much? I think it would have worked better - if they just took away the visions and had Cordelia deal with not being super-powered or having visions any longer? It's not like they were using them that much after a certain point?
It is funny however. Once the gang finds out Cordy is surrounded by light and joy, and in a better place as a higher being, watching over them from afar. (She's basically a star in the heavens). Cordy is whining that she's incredibly bored and screaming at them all to get her out of here. So maybe not a nice place after all? I think Cordy was hoodwinked by the Powers (or what Fred now calls them - the Powers that Screw You) or something pretending to be them, just like Wes was hoodwinked by a false prophecy, and Angel by Holtz.
Wes's arc is more enjoyable than Cordelia's. I particularly like his sexcapades with Lilah. Which isn't really a romance, but is at the same time. Lilah makes it clear she doesn't love him, that she's evil. And he makes it clear he doesn't love her. But they are enjoying each other.
Meanwhile - the cracks in Fred and Gunn's relationship are apparent. Fred misses Wes and Cordy - who took care of about fifty-percent of things that she is now tasked with. She misses the time - when she and Gunn could have breakfast and fight evil, and not have to worry about the rest.
They brought in Gwen to chemistry test her against Angel and Gunn, as a potential replacement for Cordelia - I can tell. She got a back story and everything.
I don't remember most of this - or enjoying it nearly this much.
**
Outside of television watching - I did another watercolor. Not perfect. This is of a confrontation between a little old woman with a walker and big truck that I saw ages ago in Jamaica, but can still visualize.
Found out last night that my niece passed her EMT training and is a now a certified EMT. Also she may end up in Georgia at some point in May, with a course on how to prevent fires by setting them (burning off brush). My lovely niece is well on the way towards her goal of becoming a forest ranger. It's actually easier to protect trees than people. People are difficult. So, I'm glad she shifted from human rights to environmental protection and forestry.
I'm really enjoying my re-watch of Buffy and Angel. The later seasons hold up better than the earlier ones do - partly because the later seasons were done in the early 00s and not the late 1990s. So while there's still the errant - "I ran like a girl" - the other characters snort at it.
Season 7 and Season 4 Angel actually have some well-written episodes in there. Deep Down - S4 Angel, where Wes searches the ocean for Angel and rescues him, and Angel, Gunn and Fred confront Connor is a good episode. And Wes has become very interesting.
Also, the first episodes of S7 are really good. I find the series more entertaining now than I did when I initially watched it. Maybe because while I don't remember most of the details, I remember the final result, so don't have quite the same anticipation or worry that I had when I first watched it - when it aired for the first time in 1997-2003. Also, I'm not as invested in the romantic "ships"? I know they are all doomed. So, it's comforting in a way it wasn't back then. And, I'm not trying to figure out where it is going, or pulling it apart like a puzzle to figure out what will happen next. There's something to be said for not over-analyzing the plots of television shows?
Buffy S7 Takeaways?
* Buffy and Xander are firmly just friends. (Item of note - back in the day, the actors tried to convince the show-runners to put Buffy and Xander together as a couple, but it was nixed. Makes sense - it goes against the story-thread, and there's no sexual chemistry between the two actors. Also, Whedon would have had to kill off Xander, which he'd already been successfully talked out of doing twice. They also flirted with putting Buffy with Wood, but Gellar talked them out of that one - mainly because she didn't want them to kill off Wood. She liked the actor. They were going to kill off anyone paired with Buffy that season. Spike actually works best in that respect.)
* I actually like Robin Wood and the actor. The actor is hilarious. I never realized how funny he actually was. He's funny in Lucifer too, actually.
There's this great exchange in Lessons.
Buffy: Hello, oh yes, (looks up at Wood), sorry it's my dog..dog walker.
Three dead?
Wood: Your dogs are dead? All three of them?
Buffy: Yeah, got to run.
Wood: Okay...good luck with the dog tragedy??
The writers must have issues with dogs? Because in Episode 2, Beneath Me, the guest of the week's dog is eaten by a demon. And both Anya and Spike are upset by it.
* I guess Head only would allow the film crew at the edge of his property in North London? Because they are outside sitting under a tree. And that's all we get. No inside shoots at all. We do get Giles riding a horse.
[Whedon figured out a way to have more Giles in S7 without making Head film in LA the whole time.]
* Spike definitely created the tailsman at the First's prompting in Lessons. That's why they don't tell us who did it - because Spike more or less admits to it. He tells Buffy what it is in Lessons and how to get rid of the ghosts. And in Beneath Me, he apologizes and says when she saw him last, he was bit crazy with the ghosts getting in his head and making him do things he shouldn't. Buffy assumes he's talking about the corporeal ghosts that she thought. No - it's actually the dead villains, and Buffy herself that he sees at the end.
* The litany of villains at the end of Lessons, morphing one into the next - with the final one being Buffy herself. The idea of evil being in everyone and we all fight it every day. And each episode has the characters discussing evil. And what it means. Dawn sees it in black and white terms, people or things are either good or evil. But Buffy and Xander, now adults, no longer do, and realize its more complicated than that.
* In Lessons when Spike says he tried to cut it out - he's referring to his soul of course, but Buffy thinks he's referring to his undead heart. (Which he kept referring to in previous seasons.)
* Anya, Willow, and Spike - the three characters that kind of went off the rails or off the deep end at the end of S6, help each other come back again from the brink in their own ways. Or at least pick up on things about one another before Dawn/Xander and Buffy do. Anya sees the soul in Spike. Spike understands the type of demon Anya unleashed. Both Anya and Spike see Willow, and figure out Willow did something. It's nicely done - more subtle, and nothing too obvious or overly melodramatic.
* In Beneath Me - Buffy is both moved, and saddened by the fact that Spike got a soul. She knows what it means. And from Angel what it most likely meant for a vampire to seek it. She's crying when she finally connects the dots, which to be fair to Buffy aren't easy to do - Spike doesn't exactly spell it out. He's a poet and has been speaking poetically since she found him. Going insane has made him wax poetical. Angel draws, Spike creates poetry. Buffy fell in love with two artists. It's not until Spike mentions that Angel hid it well in his poetic speech, that she begins to put it together. The spark is a soul, the thing that connects him to everything around him. "Aren't we in a sodden engine?" - the Church. When she asks why - he's like, for you, to be yours. He did it so she would be able to love him, only to realize that that's not really what was keeping her from loving him. He doesn't get it until he gets the soul - and the realization and the why is devastating, along with the knowledge of everything he's done. He's ashamed. He went to get a soul - because he hurt her, and wanted to prove he's worth of her love - only to discover that he's done far worse and he's not worthy, and it's not because of what he did or attempted to do with her over the years. (Honestly the attempted sexual assault is nothing. Just as what Angelus did to Buffy in S2 is nothing. Both vampires know that.) It's an impossible romance anyway you cut it.
* Anya looks better as a brunette, the actress has the wrong coloring for blond. I feel sorry for Anya. Although, I think Xander was right to call of the wedding. Anya was defining herself around Xander. Now, that she's back to being a vengeance demon - her hearts not in it. She wanted to hurt Xander, not anyone else. And keeps trying to avoid doing vengeance. It is made clear by Halfrek that Anya was the worst vengeance demon back in the day - and managed to cause more slaughter and havoc than any other. (Remember she was responsible for the Wish World in S3 and has created other realities, including that one.)
Xander is being forced to deal with the fact that Buffy's not the only one who was dating someone dangerous, who'd done evil things.
And Angel S4 is more enjoyable than I remembered. It's kind of obvious though that the writers are writing out Cordelia. Also that Whedon really did not like how Greenwalt wrote her out in S3. I agree with Whedon - Cordy's ending in S3 made no sense and doesn't work. It also felt like a plot contrivance to keep her and Angel apart, and to have Angel go down while Cordy went up. My difficulty with S3 was the Cordelia arc - it starts to go off the rails there. It's fine up until Birthday. After Birthday, it gets silly, and then she's gone, and when she returns - she doesn't add all that much? I think it would have worked better - if they just took away the visions and had Cordelia deal with not being super-powered or having visions any longer? It's not like they were using them that much after a certain point?
It is funny however. Once the gang finds out Cordy is surrounded by light and joy, and in a better place as a higher being, watching over them from afar. (She's basically a star in the heavens). Cordy is whining that she's incredibly bored and screaming at them all to get her out of here. So maybe not a nice place after all? I think Cordy was hoodwinked by the Powers (or what Fred now calls them - the Powers that Screw You) or something pretending to be them, just like Wes was hoodwinked by a false prophecy, and Angel by Holtz.
Wes's arc is more enjoyable than Cordelia's. I particularly like his sexcapades with Lilah. Which isn't really a romance, but is at the same time. Lilah makes it clear she doesn't love him, that she's evil. And he makes it clear he doesn't love her. But they are enjoying each other.
Meanwhile - the cracks in Fred and Gunn's relationship are apparent. Fred misses Wes and Cordy - who took care of about fifty-percent of things that she is now tasked with. She misses the time - when she and Gunn could have breakfast and fight evil, and not have to worry about the rest.
They brought in Gwen to chemistry test her against Angel and Gunn, as a potential replacement for Cordelia - I can tell. She got a back story and everything.
I don't remember most of this - or enjoying it nearly this much.
**
Outside of television watching - I did another watercolor. Not perfect. This is of a confrontation between a little old woman with a walker and big truck that I saw ages ago in Jamaica, but can still visualize.