Things on the Brain or Weekend Download - Buffy, Farscape, Feminism - none of which are connected

[shadowkat]

1.. Feminism - how people seem to view this word continues to bug me. So, I'm going to give you a definition that I agree with. Make of it what you will.

Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women and/or women's liberation. Feminism includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. It is also a movement that campaigns for women's rights and interests. Nancy Cott defines feminism as the belief in the importance of gender equality, invalidating the idea of gender hierarchy as a socially constructed concept. Feminists are persons of either sex who believe in feminism – and of course practice their beliefs. [From Wiki]

2. Read the preview page for Buffy issue 36 - out of curiousity - wanted to see what all the fuss on flist was about. Is it just me or does this plot thread feel a lot like the second season of Dollhouse? Possibly just me. Whedon seems a bit obsessed with the whole puppet thing, or doll thing - people using as dolls to entertain or satisfy someone else's fantasy or view of them. It's a theme I've seen done better elsewhere - notably the hilariously disturbing independent masterpiece "Being John Malkovich" - which is about celebrity and how we manipulate others to meet our fantasies. John Cusak plays a puppeteer who finds a way to enter John Malkovich's brain and literally pull his strings and do whatever he wishes through him, until he is finally forced to realize the nightmare himself, when he gets trapped inside the newborn child that ex-partner/girlfriend has with her new female lover. He can do nothing. He is just a bystander, his hands and body moved by someone else. There's also the quite splendid My Fair Lady and Pygamillion by George Bernard Shaw. And quite a few horror flicks that I've seen, including a B movie starring Vincent Price entitled House of Wax. Not to mention the superior and hilarious "Smile Time".

The idea of being used as a puppet or controlled by someone else is not new in science fiction or fantasy. Farscape plays around with it - regarding Crichton and Scorpius. It also has actual puppets, so part of playing around - is a direct commentary on the use of puppetry in the show itself. I adore puppetry - it is the one artform that seems beyond the grasp of technology. There's nothing more magical than watching a puppet show - you know there's a human behind the puppet, but if the puppeteer is good, the puppet becomes more real, a character outside of the human, to the point you forget the human exists. There's a rather good horror tale based I believe on a Twilight Zone episode - where the puppet becomes more real than the man. He begins to pull the man's strings. Another good horror tale - is about people being turned into dolls - you are safer this way, I can protect you.


In the Buffy comics and the series itself, along with Angel, Doctor Horrible, and Dollhouse - and yes, even Firefly, the concept of people as puppets or dolls comes up metaphorically repeatedly. Angel is literally a puppet of whomever he seeks approval from. And he in turn, seeks to turn everyone else into his puppets. He is always pulling people's strings. The mistake many characters, and fans, make is falling under the delusion that Angel and Angelus are separate, they aren't. They are similarily motivated. Both desire control. The character is fascinating in part due to this simple contradiction - he is both puppet and puppeteer - much like John Cusak's character in Being John Malkovich. He creates Drusilla and Spike and takes great pride in his creation. And he believes that he creates Buffy - he orders her to stay out of LA. He spies on her. He does the same things with Connor - the mindwipe. And everyone who is with him falls into this trap - Wes attempts to manipulate things to his liking. Fred is taken over by a demon who pulls her strings, or appears to, until Fred turns the tables, and her personality starts to pull Illyria's. Gunn allows WRH to pull his to be smart. And Lindsey pulls Angels and Spike's strings. In Buffy, Angel states in I think the Prom, that he fell for her the moment he saw her, that he wanted to take her heart, hold it, and protect it, lock it away from harm. It's romantic but creepy at the same time. His over-riding desire is to take over, to protect her, to do what he wants to do with Connor, to remove her from the fray, while he plays at being the hero. To put her in the ivory tower or glass case.

Spike is the opposite, he hates having his strings pulled. And rails at Angel for pulling them. OR trying to. Spike is actually more like Buffy in this respect, who equally rails against it. While it's simple for people to lable Spike as bad-boy, just as it is simple for people to lable Angel as Oedipus or is that Electra Complex? Both cliche tropes. I doubt seriously that anyone watching the show is turned on to the characters just for those reasons or restricted to them. For myself? I didn't find Spike all that interesting when he was evil or the bad boy. S2-S4 Spike didn't do much for me. I enjoyed him, he was entertaining and attractive, but...that was it. No, the character took off for me first in Becoming, then in Fool for Love - which sort of goes counter to the whole bad boy trope. In fact people who saw him as mainly a bad boy - or loved that aspect, tend to have troubles liking Season 5-7. And have more or less ignored everything after the first four seasons of the series. I found him interesting when he went against his nature. Becoming Part II - was when the character first took off for me. Trickster. You don't know what he will do. He goes against his nature, who he is, for love.
The idea of being motivated by love to become something else - fascinates me. To want to
go against your very nature, your programming, what you were conditioned to be. And Spike was conditioned to be Spike by his demon, by Angelus, Darla, and Drusilla. Over a long period of time. To go against that conditioning, if it is even possible - fascinates me. Can we change our conditioning? Can we go against what we are taught? Not, our genetic makeup per se, but traumatic conditioning. Can we choose who we are? Or does someone else choose it? Are we puppets? Spike's arc, in a way, much like Faith's (although Spike's was better done in part because we had male writers and they don't quite get how to write a Faith arc) - is about fighting against the puppet master pulling his strings, in his case it is Angelus, his mother, Drusilla, and the demon inside. In Faith's it was well - her father, the Mayor, and her watchers (not sure about a mother) - this also explains why I prefer Spike's - it was more complex. Faith's, sorry, was a bit simplestic and cliche - done in some respects far better with Illyria and Cordelia and Lilah.

The comics seem to be commenting on both Angel and Spike's take on puppetry and puppeteers. And women. Spike notably is against controlling people - and into free will/choice. Note - his name is like Angel, counter to who he is. And unlike Angel, Buffy knows his real name, his birth name, and uses it - when she wants to hit at the human inside. "William" or "WILL". And in each of the Spikecentric episodes - it is about free will and not being someone's bitch or puppet. Lies My Parents Told - is about breaking the trigger or the puppeteers strings. As is Hellbound in Angel.Angel in contrast is less willing and almost wants to give in to it, he never breaks those strings, he embraces the puppeteer instead - as we see in both Amends and to a degree in Smile Time, and Home. On the surface, he appears to get rid of the puppeteer, but the old man behind the curtain stays.


3. Farscape - finished watching the brilliant and hilarious Look at the Princess arc in Farscape, along with Won't Be Fooled Again, Beware of Dog, and The Locket.

There's a great line in Look at the Princess - A Kiss is But a Kiss.

"Do you know what they want to do to me? Turn me into a statute for 80 cycles. If I ever return to earth after that - everyone will be dead. Dad, DK, my family, my cousins, my friends, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz....Buffy The Vampire Slayer!"

I laughed my ass off. Yes, Farscape's writers watched Buffy.

They were also super-aware of their fandom. Ben Bowder keeps stating that he would just go read commentary or fanfic to figure stuff out that the writers didn't explain. The fans often did a better job.

I don't have a lot to say about the episodes, except that they do a great job of building the relationships between the characters, maintaining tension, conflict, and exploring the psychology of each one. Farscape unlike most sci-fi is a messy series - it goes into dark places, and plays with your head.

Funny story about censorship - according to the commentary, someone at the BBC got really offended by something in Won't Be Fooled Again and cut the episode to shreds, so that it was literally two minutes shorter. While the only thing Syfy worried about was when they blow up the Scarren's head, not to show too much gore on the wall. (Sigh, times have changed.) Another bit of commentary - Ben Bowder apologizes for parents of the under-12 set for saying the word "shit" on Farscape. Okaay. This brings up a question? Why would any parent care if Ben Bowder said shit on tv - after watching an episode in which he has shot someone, people have died horribly, and been blown up? I mean, why are letting your twelve year old watch Farscape to begin with? It's a violent tv series with adult themes, and not written for a 12 year old.
Shit should be the least of your worries. Honestly, people, you don't think your kid doesn't hear shit on the playground, at school, or at the store?

I find the continued censorship of foul language on tv mind-boggling. Also a tad hypocritical. Just as I find the continued censorship of nudity and sexual content. Apparently we have no problems showing a man or woman beat a woman or man, smack her or him, shoot her or him, suggest attempted rape, suggest rape or attempt to rape her/him - but nudity, a kinky sex scene, or the word fuck, shit, hell, or damn sends us running for the hills. Yes, we are an evolved species. Can't you tell?


4. Doctor Who - Vicent and the Doctor (yes, I'm behind everyone online on this series, BBC America isn't airing the next episodes until the end of July, so will be even more behind, by the time I see them, your reviews will be impossible for me to find by mere scrolling. And no, I can't download episodes without killing my computer, so don't bother offering.)

Was a rather good stand-alone. Partly due to the casting of Bill Nighey as the Museum Curator and whomever they got to play Van Gough (is it Goff or Gou). I know quite a bit about Van Gough, because have one too many people in my family who studied art and I'm in love with the impressionists. Van Gough allegedly cut off his ear - because of Muenir's disease according to some, and was just crazy to others. Muenir's could drive you nuts - if untreated, it creates severe imbalance in the inner-ear, ringing in the right ear, and vertigo. I know - my Dad had it. Made him sick and miserable until he was able to get it treated. But some art guy I meet at a gallery meetup insisted that Van Gough was just nuts and didn't have Muenir's. Or so his biographer stated. So I don't know. Like James Joyce, Gough made no money. Most brilliant artists made nothing. Popularity and fame rarely has much to do with actual talent.


Can see why people loved the episode - it was about the poor starving frustrated artist who never gets appreciated until after he's dead. Who online can't identify with that? But outside of that, not much happened and not much characterwise was advanced, well except for the fact that Amy can't remember what she lost and has been forever changed by her journey with the doctor and not necessarily in a good way.
A story arc that I have mixed feelings about. I like the bit about how changing time for someone can have dire consequences. The Doctor - for all his blather about not spoiling history or interfering, does interfer and for selfish purposes - when he takes a companion on board. OR interacts with one. He took Amy away from her time line, her life, and in the process changed many other lives - causing a rift or crack.
IT's a problem that was touched on briefly under RTD's reign, but never to my satisfaction - and was sidestepped on Lost to my annoyance. It is also an issue that was dealt with rather well in an old Ray Bradbury story - The Sound of Thunder.
(SKip the movie - it was crap). What I have mixed feelings about is - the whole, Amy says she's not the marrying kind as it turns out, and isn't sure why she feels loss, and wants a guy with ginger hair. All I could think of is - Rory was not that compelling. And why is married life the best option for her? Why can't she want to be single and fancy free - why can't any of the women? It's annoying. Not, anti-feminist, just annoying.

So, while I enjoyed Vincent and The Doctor, it didn't blow me away like a few of the episodes in S4 or was that S3 did? Possibly both. It's no Blink, Human Condition,
Library, or Forests of Air (can't remember the name of it - the first River Song arc).
But it was enjoyable. A little sentimental and a tad cliche - the old we're going to meet a famous artist and change his life story - which they do every year it seems.
I admittedly liked this one better than the one about Shakespeare.

Comments

[rahirah]

I read a theory not that long ago that Van Gogh didn't really cut off his ear at all, it was cut off by Gauguin in an argument, and Van Gogh took the rap. Apparently Gauguin was the one who told police that Van Gogh mutilated himself - Van Gogh himself never commented on the incident.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The more you read about Gauguin, the more of an enormous asshole that he seems. Van Gogh makes for a very sympathetic figure. Gauguin? Not so much.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Always knew there was a reason that Gaugin was the least favorite of the impressionists - he isn't really part of the movement. His style was quite different, and at times disturbingly exploitive of the natives. Not a favorite artist.

I think the theory that Gaugin chopped of Van Gough's ear was the one that the guy I met at the art museum meetup proposed as a contradiction to the one I'd read. Personally, I like the Meunir's disease theory better. I'm having troubles envisioning someone cutting off a friend's ear during an argument. How do you do that exactly? Were they fighting over shears or knives or something?

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

J Whedon has his favourite themes he goes back to obsessively, but of course he's hardly the only one. I always find it interesting when these themes develop into a new environement.

And a propos puppeteers, a recent rewatch of several episodes of season 3 made it very appearent how it is a running theme there too with love in the role of the puppeteer. There's the dialogue in Beauty and the Beast between Buffy and the school shrink Mr Platt stating how love can become your master and reduce you to become its dog. It's followed up by several episodes building a parallel between Buffy dangerously attracted to Angel again and Xander and Willow feeling the same towards each other in spite of their boyfriend/girlfriend, theme that culminates in Lovers' Walk with revelation of the cheating and of the denial and of course with Spike introducing himself as love's bitch. It's also in one of these episodes that some characteristics of Angel are laid bare for the viewer: in the Zeppo, as he is quarelling with Buffy he tells "then let me decide for you". I don't think they could have been clearer than that. :)

As for "bad boy" Spike word to all you've said. The character caught my attention fromSchool hard on: it was the humour, the wit, the contrast between the demon and the man but had he stayed like that, I wouldn't have become this interested in him. And as an aside I'm getting more than tired of the sexist (the whole women love bad boys mantra) and the simplistic view the comic writers in IDW have on the character. They all repeat the same things: you really have to wonder if there's a memo they have to use when interviewed.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how much dog imagery comes up in these episodes as well. Mr. Platt says that you become loves dog in an Oz-centric episode; Spike is love's bitch; Oz in wolf form is completely uncontrollable (and appears in The Zeppo, probably notably when Xander gets past his dog-like status). Oz and Veruca are of course complete puppets to their emotions in dog-form. Willow moves from dog-person to cat-person when she moves on from Oz to Tara and simultaneously increases hugely in power. Spike, when he's chipped (and thus completely controlled) is referred to over and over again as a dog in a muzzle, a dog who has gone to the vet and doesn't play with the other puppies anymore, etc.

Season five of AtS is the one with the most puppet imagery, and, what do you know--dog-girl Nina becomes a major character!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Season 4 - ATS also has a great deal of puppet imagery - with Cordelia. And by the way, Cordelia is foreshadowing in some respects for what happens to Angel in the comics. To understand Angel's arc in S8, all you have to do is rewatch Cordelia's.
She decides that it is up to her to save Angel, and sees herself as the savior - and she manipulates Angel throughout S4.
Except it is really Jasmine, one of the powers that is doing it.
Which is why Angel's actions as Twilight are so ironic, yet understandable - if you think about how easily he bought Cordelia's story and how easy it was for Jasmine to manipulate him.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have thought about the Cordelia connection. The thing that's interesting/frustrating about AtS season four is the way you can see seeds of the story that Whedon, Jeff Bell et al. were trying to tell originally--the one where Cordelia is mostly Cordelia, but believes strongly in herself as a higher power. Then because of Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy they had to spend the season rewriting to make everything fit. The arc becomes very difficult to follow--when was Cordelia's fatal mistake? Not giving up the visions, when she had the chance (with the Groosalugg)? Accepting Skip's offer to become a demon? To ascend? But you can still see enough of the arc that it's still an interesting story.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

They have a tendency to do what Ian Watson states in commentary to Farscape is bad direction/editing - they keep scenes and bits in the story that do not further the story and are not necessary. It's called being unable to delete your darlings. S3 was horrifically edited, as was S4 - we have a lot of bits in there that did not help the plot and/or further the characters. Buffy S7 had the same problem.

Getting back to Angel and the Puppet theme? You can tell that's how Whedon saw the character - considering almost every single episode Whedon wrote that focused on Angel or was for Angel the Series had numerous puppet metaphors or images. Waiting in the Wing - the maestro who is pulling everyone's strings, Spin the Bottle - the spell that is controlling everyone and the higher being inside Cordy that is manipulating her, Hole in the World - the old one inside Fred and how the old one got inside Fred.
And...it was Whedon's idea to turn Angel into a puppet literally in Smile Time. Whedon found it ironic - since Angel is the ultimate manipulator/puppeteer. As we see in the episode where they bring Angelus back and he manipulates everyone from his cell. While Cordelia does it from outside.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

Somebody (I'm sorry I cant't remember who it was) on LJ once made a statistical study about this imagery. If I remember rightly, the prevalence of negative imagery in relation with the dog was overwhelming as in the opposite, positive imagery prevailed in the case of cats. There seem to be a link established between control and dogs, either that it indicates a lack of control (though the wolf imagery seems more adaptated in this case)or on the contrary that it indicates a control established from outside. Both can be seen in fact as the opposite faces of a same coin; meaning if you're not able to respect the rules and control yourself, there's a big risk somebody will impose these rules on you in a much more restrictive manner. That's after all what happened to Spike. I suppose one can see the dog as the animal by excellence which is controlled by outside powers in opposition to the cat which is a much more independant animal.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. Besides Willow & Tara's cat, I remember Xander referring to Riley as "like a jungle cat" in "Fool for Love." And there's Cordelia in the cat costume in "Halloween"...I'm not sure if there's as much consistency to those references.

But yes, there's both dog-as-wildness and dog-as-domesticated in the series. And "Beauty and the Beasts" has quotes from The Call of the Wild, which is about the movement of a dog from domesticated to wildness.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

As for "bad boy" Spike word to all you've said. The character caught my attention fromSchool hard on: it was the humour, the wit, the contrast between the demon and the man but had he stayed like that, I wouldn't have become this interested in him. And as an aside I'm getting more than tired of the sexist (the whole women love bad boys mantra) and the simplistic view the comic writers in IDW have on the character. They all repeat the same things: you really have to wonder if there's a memo they have to use when interviewed.

S2 Spike is fun, but pretty much a cliche until Becoming. Then he becomes a character and not a fun cartoon. Angel similarily doesn't become more than a cartoon until possibly Innocence. Up until then he's also the bad boy cliche.

As for the folks at IDW? I find it very hard to take anything those guys say seriously. Consider the source. They are basically pulp writers and artists for a comic book that sells less than 20,000 copies a year, and is marketed mainly to teenage boys. And it's not even a half-way decent comic. The art is crap - proportions are completely off, the writing is crap. Everyone sounds like a character out of an old Mickey Spillian novel. All of the diehard Angel fans on my flist are ignoring them and have not bothered to buy a single issue - preferring their own fanfic to whatever IDW comes up with. In fact, the ones I do know of that loved Angel the series and read the comics, have like myself isolated themselves to the comics written by Lynch and Peter David and ignored everyone else.

And...anyone who writes a character as a bad boy stereotype is a bad writer. I mean, boring. Good writers push past stereotypes and find the layers to a character, they know that the audience won't read otherwise. Bad writers don't know how to do that, and rely on stock or stereotypes.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

"S2 Spike is fun, but pretty much a cliche until Becoming. Then he becomes a character and not a fun cartoon. Angel similarily doesn't become more than a cartoon until possibly Innocence. Up until then he's also the bad boy cliche. " Yes you're right, though I see a difference: in Spike's case they played with the cliché,made it vivid and fun even gave it a certain brilliance; in Angel's case they used it much more straightforwardly.

"As for the folks at IDW? I find it very hard to take anything those guys say seriously." I hear you. But, I find really sad to see what they are making of such brilliant characters; and it's not just Spike either, Illyria's fate seems worse: this poetic, powerful feminine figure litteraly has been turned by Willingham into a bitch in heat. I'm also sad for the teenage boys who are appearantly not judged worthy of anything of better quality and who will be exposed to this sexist crap and who for some of them will never hear about the original characters.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

in Spike's case they played with the cliché,made it vivid and fun even gave it a certain brilliance; in Angel's case they used it much more straightforwardly.

Agreed. Part of that was however due to the actors portraying the roles, and well...let's just say Sid Vicious is a heck of lot more interesting than Famous Hockey Player whose Name I can't think of.

But, I find really sad to see what they are making of such brilliant characters; and it's not just Spike either, Illyria's fate seems worse: this poetic, powerful feminine figure litteraly has been turned by Willingham into a bitch in heat. I'm also sad for the teenage boys who are appearantly not judged worthy of anything of better quality and who will be exposed to this sexist crap and who for some of them will never hear about the original characters.

IDW's not the only game in town, nor that wide read. They only sold a little over 17,000 copies. Think about that for a bit. A tv show that had over a million fans - and the comics sell what, 17,000 copies. You can't make a living off of that, well, you can but it is meager. Granted they are the only ones who have rights to the Angelverse and no one else is doing anything outside of fans, but since the fan stuff is better not to mention free - what's the problem? Just ignore IDW and read the fan stuff. IDW's comics are basically fanfic too, they are just getting paid for it because they paid FOX for the right to do so.

That said, I'm admittedly disappointed that they aren't better - especially when Lynch's Spike series was so good, and Peter David's Only Human, apparently rocked. But, what can you do? Except stop buying, ignore them, and buy when Lynch comes back? I told my comic book shop that I wasn't interested in any Angel or Spike comics that were not written by Brian Lynch.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're enjoying Doctor Who, but sorry you'll wait so long to see the finale... don't worry, no spoilers from me, and I'll be up for discussing it when you finally see it!
I really loved the Vincent VanGogh episode, I loved how they made up settings to fit his paintings, they did a lovely job IMO... and the actor who played VanGogh was wonderful (and it is always a blast to see Bill Nighey!).

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Oh, I really like Being John Malkovich. I think much of the puppeting themes return throughout Charlie Kaufman's work--in the subplot, Tom Wilkinson and Elijah Wood's characters in Eternal Sunshine are both puppet-master figures, at different stages of success and development. And in Synecdoche, New York the central character creates a world that reflects his life, and the way he controls that world, and the world controls him, mirrors the artistic process. Good stuff.

Re: Angel and Spike. You're absolutely right; I forget sometimes exactly how much Angel plays the puppetmaster, because I've largely been rewatching early!AtS and he generally avoids this kind of behaviour there, though he indulges in it very heavily in mid-season two. That Angel is constantly manipulated, by Darla, by Wolfram & Hart, the Powers that Be, Jasmine, is one of the interesting threads running through the show. In some ways the season eight preview page seems to be Whedon distilling this aspect of Angel down so far that the rest of his character doesn't remain--Angel exists to be manipulated, and to manipulate people under him. Which indicates I guess that this is the part of Angel that Whedon finds most interesting.

Whedon also plays with this in Astonishing X-Men, in the (often brilliant) Torn arc, with Emma Frost as puppeteer controlled by Cassandra Nova. Note that Emma also, in trying to control the X-Men, helps each one of them "cut" their own strings--which happens most dramatically in Scott's case. In Hank's case, there is even string referenced, in that a ball of string is what sets him free from Emma's manipulations.

I've never watched Farscape. I get the impression, I suppose, that it's good?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I've never watched Farscape. I get the impression, I suppose, that it's good?

At the moment? It is my favorite tv series ever. I think I like it better than Buffy. And it definitely is better than both BSG and Lost in how it examines character, dark themes, and psychological/political themes. Brilliant series.

Plus pop-cultural references abound.

In Season 1 - Angel plays puppetmaster more than once - specifically with Faith and Buffy. With Buffy in I Will Always Remember You - where he chooses to erase what happened and change time, without her input, manipulating her afterwards.
In the Faith arc - he manipulates Faith into revealing her pain. Buffy is right to hate him a bit in that episode. He also goes to Buffy's world and is manipulative in Pangs (never letting her see him) and in Yoko Factor - with Riley.

Meanwhile WRH is busy manipulating Angel in S1 - with the Shanshue Prophecy.

Angel's story is in part about addiction - he is and always will be a puppet to his addiction for power.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Very cool. I do want to check out Farscape at some point. Maybe I'll rent the DVDs? Right now I have an odd problem--my DVD player is new, and my TV is very old. So the DVD player doesn't have any option to switch the viewing mode, and so anything is projected to fill the entire screen, presumably because new TVs all have the option of changing things. Which means I can't watch anything in widescreen--because it ends up being stretched, which bothers me far too much to enjoy anything. So I'm mostly just renting pre-1960s films and pre-2000 (or so?) tv.

For some reason the Buffy crossover stuff slipped my mind when I described Angel as "not manipulative." I view I Will Remember You in a similar way--he's being manipulated fairly obviously by the Oracles/Powers that Be, and he's manipulating Buffy. I'd never really thought about Angel manipulating Faith into relieving her pain--do you mean before or after the big fight in the alley? Or both?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Which means I can't watch anything in widescreen--because it ends up being stretched, which bothers me far too much to enjoy anything.

Farscape isn't a problem in that regard. They didn't film it in widescreen until the mini-series. The reason for this is it pre-dates wide-screen tvs. The tv series ended in 2002 and started in 1998. So like Buffy, it's all in regular. Wish it was widescreen - if ever there was a series that would look cool on widescreen- it's Farscape.

(And yep, that was what motivated me to buy a widescreen when my tv blew out four years ago. I'd grown tired of watching DVDs such as Firefly, Angel, and well most films - and have everyone look liked they'd spent five hours on the rack being stretched. But it is not an issue with the Farscape DVDs.)

I'd never really thought about Angel manipulating Faith into relieving her pain--do you mean before or after the big fight in the alley? Or both?

He's manipulative towards Faith the moment he meets her and never stops. Faith tries to manipulate Angel, but he keeps getting the upper hand. Oddly, the only time she succeeds in manipulating him is when he is Angelus. (Which come to think of it - is the only time Buffy and Spike are able to manipulate Angel - when he is Angelus in Becoming.)