Hm. It's true, I watch very, very little horror, ever. I don't mind occasional suspenseful stories, but I particularly can't watch horror movies because I have a very image-based memory and if I watch scary movies... those scary scenes will be playing over and over in my head for weeks afterwards. Even if I make a conscious effort to forget, they don't fade very well. Years later and I can still remember especially graphic scenes and shudder. Its terribly distracting and I don't like it, so I usually avoid the genre.
I suspect that due to watching it out of context, and not really knowing the genre, I'm missing a lot. Certainly it is my least favorite Joss Whedon production. Not to say that Buffy is lower quality at all, but none of the characters or themes really speak to me in the way his other work has. I've enjoyed the episodes I've seen, but I don't feel compelled to rewatch things over and over, or to really explore the deeper layers of the work. I know they're there, but mostly I just enjoy the surface.
The human/vampire thing... it makes sense that Buffy was one of the first to do that, although it does feel very odd in the current vampire-saturated world. And within a fictional world, I don't have a problem with the idea itself, precisely. What I mean is that from a meta standpoint, the narrative of an immortal/mortal story is pretty much never going to work out. Whether it's fairy tales about fae creatures seducing humans, or a vampire/human relationship, or really anything else (The Dream/Nada relationship in Sandman comes to mind)... almost always the relationship ends in tragedy. So I have a hard time getting invested in those kinds of situations, because I spend the entire time waiting for the horrible thing that will inevitably break them apart. It's hard for me to support the characters getting involved when I just know it will all go array.
Mind you, I'm not really much for shipping anyway in most cases. I usually prefer that the characters be involved in the adventure, and not get distracted by making out. Some authors can sell me on relationships-- I recently finished reading a book where the author sold me so well on the characters that I spent the entire book hoping against hope it would all work out and the two characters would find each other and get together-- but this is a pretty rare thing for me. For the most part, I want to focus on whatever problem needs to be solved, and keep most of the romance off-screen.
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I suspect that due to watching it out of context, and not really knowing the genre, I'm missing a lot. Certainly it is my least favorite Joss Whedon production. Not to say that Buffy is lower quality at all, but none of the characters or themes really speak to me in the way his other work has. I've enjoyed the episodes I've seen, but I don't feel compelled to rewatch things over and over, or to really explore the deeper layers of the work. I know they're there, but mostly I just enjoy the surface.
The human/vampire thing... it makes sense that Buffy was one of the first to do that, although it does feel very odd in the current vampire-saturated world. And within a fictional world, I don't have a problem with the idea itself, precisely. What I mean is that from a meta standpoint, the narrative of an immortal/mortal story is pretty much never going to work out. Whether it's fairy tales about fae creatures seducing humans, or a vampire/human relationship, or really anything else (The Dream/Nada relationship in Sandman comes to mind)... almost always the relationship ends in tragedy. So I have a hard time getting invested in those kinds of situations, because I spend the entire time waiting for the horrible thing that will inevitably break them apart. It's hard for me to support the characters getting involved when I just know it will all go array.
Mind you, I'm not really much for shipping anyway in most cases. I usually prefer that the characters be involved in the adventure, and not get distracted by making out. Some authors can sell me on relationships-- I recently finished reading a book where the author sold me so well on the characters that I spent the entire book hoping against hope it would all work out and the two characters would find each other and get together-- but this is a pretty rare thing for me. For the most part, I want to focus on whatever problem needs to be solved, and keep most of the romance off-screen.