Season 6 WAS good, no really...

POSTED BY: FURYFIRE
UPDATED: Monday, July 8, 2002 21:34
VIEWED: 24317
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NOVAGRASS

Monday, June 24, 2002 12:12 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by FURYFIRE:
Funny you'd bring up Dawson's Creek. Didnt the writer of Normal Again write an ep of Dawson's Creek this season?

Uh, is the tag the same as the signature?

Hmm... IMDB credits the writer (Diego Gutierrez http://us.imdb.com/Name?Garc%EDa+Guti%E9rrez,+Diego ) as a Dawson's Creek writer and the writer of Buffy's "Normal Again." He's also been Joss Whedon's Writing Assistant since Season 3 (if you scour the ending credits, you'll see

).

Strange...

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

"Nice guys can only get so mad." Fillion on Mal

BOBKNAPTOR

Monday, June 24, 2002 6:44 PM

Quote:

Didja think we would just sit back and accept the drug-addiction-metaphor tripe you fed us?

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE! Although I'm not sure it was all Marti's fault. I've heard Joss quoted as saying that he worked very close on all the story arcs for S6. So even if he didn't write the episode, that doesn't mean he didn't approve of the willow/junky thing.

Of all the things to have someone get addicted to... MAGIC??? It's a show about vampires and demons. Magic has been a part of it from the very beginning. The entire season, the only thing that really put me off was the whole magic junky storyline. Willow was this amazing strong character, and her magic has been helpful, even saving the day when Buffy could not. And then they take that away from her. What will Willow be next season? back to the lovable but helpless computer geek she was in S1? I have to say that I didn't really find Willow to be that interesting a character until she started standing up for herself and standing on her own. I love her stubborness when Buffy would try to shield her from the evil and Willow would jump into the fray with her magicks anyway, or get pissed at Buffy for trying to hold her back. Yes, Buffy is the Slayer. But she is not the only powerful being. And I think that the show will suffer tremendously if Willow goes back to a magic-free lifestyle.

Unfortunately, making the connection between Magic and Drug addiction pretty much blocks them from pursuing a magical storyline with Will. For example, if she had a drinking problem, and she "kicked the habbit", they would never show her casually drinking a glass of wine, because she's an addict... she can't enjoy a casual glass of wine like other, non-addicted people. Same with magic now. Because of her addiction, she won't be able to cast even simple protection spells anymore. I think they definitely could have handled it differently.

Say, you all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?

ZICSOFT

Monday, June 24, 2002 7:09 PM

As they say over in Rush Country, Ditto. Magic Addict Willow was lame for all the reasons you mention. Plus it destroyed the impact of Evil Willow. Every Buffy season leads up to the Final Confrontation With The Big Bad. Screw that up and you screw up the whole season.

It gets worse. All though the summer of 2001 fans were driving themselves crazy with the big question: How will they bring Buffy back? They made it very clear with Joyce that ressurection is a no-no. There has to be a trick, a price, something.

After a while it seemed like the price would be the effect it had on Willow, by seducing her to the dark side. But then they simply abandoned that concept, and went with something recycled from an After School Special. Very sad.

BOBKNAPTOR

Monday, June 24, 2002 7:30 PM

Buffy The After School Special:

They have always done this. Season 2, she lied to go to a party where she drank alcohol and was nearly eaten by a snake monster.

Dawn lied about staying at a friends house and was nearly eaten by a vampire.

Buffy and Riley were having too much sex, and they unleashed the repressed spirits of past inhabitants of Riley's dorm who attacked partygoers and kept Buffy and Riley locked in his bedroom (even if they didn't notice they were locked in).

Buffy drinks beer with some guys from school, they all turn into neanderthals.

Even things as mundane as Buffy sneaks out of the house, Buffy gets grounded. or Buffy causes problems, Buffy gets kicked out of school.

But so far, they have all been real problems. Teenagers lying to their parents CAN lead to bad things (maybe not snake monsters, but the kids can get themselves hurt). Drinking CAN lead to stupid behavior. Getting caught up in the passion of a new relationship does put strain on friendships.

But why Magic? Other than this particular Magic=Meth/Heroin/Crack season, when has Willow's magic been anything but helpful to the Scoobs? And if Magic really were this big scary villain, how come Giles and Tara still used it?

Risk? Of what? Making her deader?

FURYFIRE

Monday, June 24, 2002 8:43 PM

Yeah, of course we all know he was jossy's assistant. Brett Matthews is now, and he posts on the firefly off. site, chek it out there.

Uh, is the tag the same as the signature?

ZICSOFT

Monday, June 24, 2002 9:26 PM

Quote:
Buffy The After School Special:

They have always done this. Season 2..

Hmm, I don't think that episode had any particular moral. Or if it did, it wasn't "Don't hang out with guys who are too old for you, or you'll be eaten by a big snake"!

Sure Buffy uses themes from ordinary life, and they're mostly themes that have been in other TV shows. But there's usually an original spin to it. That's why Buffy has such a wide audience.

Willow Addict, on the other hand, is a standard-issue soap opera story with minor repackaging. Which is the sort of crap you see on every TV show except Buffy. Which makes it all the more disappointing.

TINYTIMM

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 1:35 AM

Point: Magic is POWER. And all Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Take a look at congress for awful examples.

Jeff Timm
Who is careful with what little power he has.

NOVAGRASS

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by TinyTimm:
Point: Magic is POWER. And all Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Take a look at congress for awful examples.

The thing is... they didn't play the power addiction angle. I think it would have been fascinating if the drug metaphor would have been left as sub-text, with the real issue being her addiction to power and the corruption that absolute power brings.

It may not be all Marti Noxon's fault, but I will probably hold her resonsible for the major flaw in the season. She wrote the *only* episode that blatantly compared magic to drugs (Wrecked), and she did it in such a tasteless and *obvious* way that it was utterly ludicrous. In my eyes, the rest of the season was a cover for Marti's screw-up in Wrecked. I may be totally off on this, maybe none of it was Marti's fault and it was all orchestrated by Joss, but until this is proven to me, I will hold her mostly responsible for the most uninteresting (read:annoying) aspect of Buffy to date.

Normally, I try to draw parallels to "Dark Age" from season 2 (the Ethan Rayne episode where we discover Giles had a negative experience with magic somewhat similar to Willow's story), or I try to explain it as "but Willow was using a destructive type of magic, and Tara had been using a "good" type of magic which Willow had been using up until this season," but I've given up on trying to justify Willow's addiction. I didn't like it at all... I'd go as far to say that I hated it.

One thing about Dawson's Creek... I don't see a comparison. DC is about "good" kids doing "good"/"normal" things and developing "normal" drama through their actions. Buffy, this season, was about good kids doing very very bad/not normal things and developing "dark" drama through their actions (that's right, drugs/magic and rape are not that common... and certainly not things dealt with on Dawson's Creek). Therefore, Buffy has more in common with trashy soap operas than Dawson's Creek.

Don't get me wrong, most of the season, I felt, was amazingly well done and incredibly powerful;however, when Wrecked aired, the series degraded tremendously (with the exception of "Gone" and "Doublemeat Palace") to a low level it has rarely reached in its six season run. During these episodes, it felt like I was watching the aforementioned "trashy soap opera." Only when Normal Again aired did the series return from it's mid-season hell and really start to take off again.

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

"Nice guys can only get so mad." Fillion on Mal

ZICSOFT

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 12:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TinyTimm:
Point: Magic is POWER. And all Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Take a look at congress for awful examples.

Jeff Timm
Who is careful with what little power he has.

Still in the same political rut, I see.

But you have a point. And that's the way they started to portray Willow at the beginning of Season 6. Too bad they didn't stick with that.

FURYFIRE

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 8:56 PM

But they did play the magik/powerful angle, ie. when Willow threatened Giles with her power in Flooded. I agree with the other guy, who said that? Tiny Tim? sry

Uh, is the tag the same as the signature?

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