BTVS AU: Buffy has a revelation that her friends suck a la Dennis in “Mac Day” and realizes she doesn’t hate Sunnydale or the responsibility of being the Slayer, and what she really hates is Xander and Willow who have made all those cool things suck.
You’re not bothering me! I’m happy you made it clear that you are looking for clarification, because other times the passive aggressive baitiness just radiates off other anons.
like maybe my queen, onegirlinalltheworld, wants to vent on this but I think Willow is a legit bad friend to Buffy because
she ganged up on Buffy, post-return home, in season 3 at her own party. They have known each other for a year, but Willow (and the others; this was a group effort) were eeky about direct confrontation with Buffy’s feelings so hid their unwillingness to interact directly with Buffy’s trauma by holding an unintimate party at her house against her will
as far as we see in the text, she is living in Buffy’s house rent free in season 6. still did not get a job or offer textual financial support as Buffy was struggling with depression throughout the whole season
Honest does not give a fuck about Buffy’s mental agency sometimes; without consulting Buffy, Willow casts a memory erasing spell in Tabula Rasa. She doesn’t even dignify Buffy with the request to erase her memories of Heaven. No, Willow knows best and she goes ahead without informing Buffy
almost killed Dawn in a reckless magic high (whether her magic addicition is an actual addiction or an extension of her already controlling tendencies is another meta)
There is an undercurrent of judgmental sex-shaming towards Willow’s attitude re: Buffy and Spike. Remember, Tara said she was making “that face” when she find out about Buffy and Spike in early Seeing Red? In the second to last ep, Willow also makes (I believe, paraphrasing here) some comment about Buffy (who is coping with clinical depression) having to “screw” a gross vamp just to “feel alive” (again, Buffy has been borderline suicidal the whole season; that comment is gross)
Kicking Buffy out of the house (in which Buffy housed and supported Willow throughout her entire addiction all last year) in season 7
I don’t think Willow is Buffy’s most negative force in her life and I think that Willow geuinely thinks she is helping Buffy most of the time. But she does these things by going over Buffy’s head and helping her whether she asks for it or not. a lot of these thing against her are in collaboration with other people…but she is kinda a common denominator here.
i am mostly indifferent, occasionally amused, often endeared, but also often annoyed by Angel.
He’s often paternalistic in that good sense; he does look out for people, needs to feel that he’s done right by people at the end of the day, and is open-minded towards society’s rejects (it’s actually perfect his BFFs by the end of ATS S1 are Wesley and Cordy, the two characters who were also often antagonistic pals to the BTVS crew).
He’s paternalistic is the ugh sense too; although everyone no matter what you ship or who you like experiences heartbreak at their break up in The Prom, it comes from a place of paternalistic “I’m doing this for your own good” that while seeming well-intended (and ultimately i think the right choice for everyone), illustrates that this is not really a relationship of equals? I don’t think Angel sees/saw Buffy as his equal ever; someone he did admire in a lot of ways, and often respected but not on his level and ultimatley something to be protected, a cause, a statement, not partner.
It’s an interesting, but much less tolerable dissonance. I don’t hate him really, but am often frustrated by the going-over-your-headness. He is (often inadverently) funny as fuck sometimes tho
I know, the Watcher’s Council like The Trio with trust funds, too much free time after college, and European accents; a bunch of white dudes (plus ok a few women and POC here and there to round the bare minimum diversity quota :P) who like to think they’re superheroes and play at world saving. They call slayers a “tool”; Buffy, Nikki, all the other girls put through hell are like little action figures to them.
So it kinda makes sense that they don’t want to pay them because that would be, like, acknowledging these girls have needs and are “””human”””. Leaving your slayer starving is inefficient nonetheless but really expected because, again, the Trio with legacy grants and stuff.
I honestly think the council in S6 was quietly hoping that Buffy would eventually die in some quiet, non-world destroying way so they could start new with the next one. Hahaha screw that, Masterpiece Theatre dudes!
To be fair, it looks like some slayers are supported but through living with their Watchers who have the salary; the girls don’t get paid so scratch that being fair part.
just sayin’, the Monks could have pre-programmed Dawn with a childhood crush on anybody in the world and they chose Xander. What did this ball of green light ever do to you, monks?
me when people connect Buffy’s romantic troubles to her “daddy issues”: that is shitty, patriarchal reasoning that makes only the flimsiest comparisons between her lovers and Hank. by relating men leaving her to hank, we reinforce Buffy’s unfounded fears that she is inherently unlovable or deliberately chooses shitty guys, thus ultimately blaming her these relationships’ downfall. why do we have to fall back on Oedipal stereotypes in analyzing our female characters. why can’t buffy’s relationships and their issues stand on their own
me when people connect Spike’s romantic troubles to his “mommy issues”: lol ye
Not to bring everything back to whedon sucks, but how we should just take for granted that Angel should be paid but Buffy should do this for free is such a wasted point of discourse. It would have been so radical (and cute!) if Buffy set up shop in Sunnydale similar to Angel’s business (because it’s everyone knows she’s the slayer already! it’s not like she’s “blowing cover”; all the demons know her name and she literally got an award in high school. If they demons didn’t break into her house and kill them like yesterday, they’re not going to today)
Angel would probs hear and try some paternalistic concern that this business was making her “cold”, or at least try some cease and desist on her mimciking his business model. That’s bullshit too, because she developed this business model three seasons before his show.
Angel gets paid and we aren’t supposed to see it as any “less” becoming of his duty. Letting Buffy starve because it is “her duty as woman/slayer etc.” make me angrier than it should! Like why shouldn’t she be compensated just because it’s also her “duty”? It’s not like she wouldn’t do pro bono stuff like Angel does! She’s not the world’s housewife! She had a crack accountant (Anya) to help her run this thing! Wasted opp
I like how everyone in Buffy (except Anya) makes a big deal about how unethical it is to charge money for saving people’s lives but that’s literally the entire premise of angel’s show
So I was reading Drusilla’s character page on TV Tropes and found an interesting description of her character;
“Karma Houdini: She killed Kendra, slaughtered hundreds of innocents, turned Darla back into a vampire at the behest of Wolfram & Hart before going on a massive rampage through L.A.; despite all of this, by the end of both Buffy and Angel, she’s still alive and at large. Taken to ludicrous extremes in the Angel & Faith comics, where after thwarting her plans and killing the Lorophage demon she was using to “help” people, Angel lets her escape… which leads to Drusilla attacking Faith’s Slayer squad and killing one of them.”
To put it kindly, I strongly disagree that Drusilla is a ‘karma Houdini’, or character who avoids comeuppance for her misdeeds.
First and foremost, I find it perplexing how death is the only thing the writer considers karma. Being killed, apparently, is the only way a character can pay for their sins, which makes for a twisted sense of justice in my humble opinion. According to this writer, being tortured to the point of being bedridden isn’t comeuppance. Nor is being tortured again by your own childe. Or being thrown off a building and into the path of a speeding Ford. Or being set on fire. Or being tasered, tied up, and nearly sacrificed as part of your ex-lover’s demented declaration of love to another woman. Or being driven even more insane by the brief possession of a soul. Or being made lucid only to be slowly driven insane a second time, fully aware of what’s happening to you, and that’s there nothing you can do to save yourself. None of this constitutes suffering for your actions, apparently. None of it.
Moreover, the idea that dying is the only way Dru can be sufficiently punished makes no sense in the context of her character. In fact, it borders on a non-sequitur. The whole theme of Drusilla’s character is “eternal torment”, being forced to live with the trauma of losing your family, your mind, your innocence. To put it in Angelus’ words;
“Killing is so merciful in the end, isn’t it? The pain is ended.”
– Dear Boy, Angel.
This is when he decides to sire Dru. Because for her, being forced to live is the worst punishment of all.Tragically, Drusilla would probably not regard death as comeuppance…But as clemency.
Ultimately, the idea that Drusilla never suffers any karma is nothing short of ridiculous. And this is without touching the issue of how much responsibility (if any) Dru can take for her actions, a whole other can of worms. Do people deserve retribution for misdeeds they can’t understand the consequences of?
Me: CAN YOU NOT. CAN YOU FREAKING NOT, ANGEL? I DON’T THINK A CARPENTER GETS TO COMPLAIN IF THE TABLE HE MAKES IS UNEVEN. I DON’T THINK A SHOEMAKER GETS TO COMPLAIN IF HIS SOLES WEAR OUT TOO QUICKLY. I DON’T THINK AN ENGINEER GETS TO COMPLAIN IF HIS BRIDGE COLLAPSES DUE TO A LACK OF STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY. YOU DO NOT GET TO COMPLAIN ABOUT DRUSILLA. I THOUGHT SHE WAS YOUR BIGGEST REGRET. YOUR GREATEST EVIL OR WHATEVER. I THOUGHT YOU FELT SOOOO GUILTY. THEN ACT LIKE IT!!!
Sister: *pokes her head into the room* You okay?
Me: *sitting back down again* Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?
Cheloneuniverse 