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Feb. 12th, 2003 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlock::deep breath::
I'm finally adjusting to watching Buffy in the living room, with other people.
::snort:: Actually, it wasn't bad. My mom was waiting patiently for 24, so she just watched BtVS by proxy (or is that by default?--no dictionary hand here...) I ended up explaining a lot of it to her, but fortunately FD was an episode that gave you a lot of exposition more subtly: Gile's righteous ranting about the fight to come named the evil; the was much talk of the chip that was taken out and its former purpose; Xander explaining how hard it must be for the Chinese potential to be uprooted from her home and told she might be a slayer, when all the potential slayers are getting killed; The FE taunting Andrew about his place in the group and killing his friend.... I ended up really only having to explain why everybody was staying at Buffy's house together.
Anyway, during the hall conversation between B&S about her date, mom announced calmy "I like him." I said "Oh, I do too." I tend to usually like prettier guys than she does, but in some cases like Legolas (OB) or JM, we are in full and utter agreement.
God, I have to get home to watch that again; it was so enjoyable.
Wood's purpose in this episode (besides being the hottest thing next to Spike) reminded me of one of the most central themes to BtVS: normal versus extraordinary. Which you choose to be, and how that choice affects your life for better or worse. Wood represents the normal-- as I've seen a few times on LJ aready, he's "like Riley only better." I think he's there to provide the contrast-- Buffy can pick normal Wood and find the normal relationship, or she can pick abnormal Spike and find the extra-ordinary relationship. I think we'll see her choose Spike, because if there's anything we know about Buffy rihgt now, it's that she wants the extra-ordinary. She is an extraordinary person, and she needs an extraordinary love.
So, here's a song I like, that this ep reminded me of. It applies to Buffy's character in particular, but also applies to the Scooby Gang as a whole. Because they all decided they didn't want "normal" a long time ago. And plus, it'd make a great music video for Buffy/Scoobies/Sunnydale.
Everclear
"Normal Like You"
Yeah they said you called me maybe yesterday
I don't even have the strength to pick up the phone
You wouldn't even know me since you went away
The Prozac doesn't do it for me anymore
Yeah you ought to take your medication every day
Be a good dog, live life in a wonderful way
Tell me why you want to be blind
I don't want to be normal like you
I know now every day
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be normal too
I heard those stupid people talk about you again
I just have to laugh to keep from hurting bad
Their simple minds just cannot seem to understand
You are neurotic and depressed
It doesn't mean that you're sad
You walk around oblivious to everything
You wear that party dress, black mascara
Like you're queen for the day
I will never be normal like you
You walk around oblivious to everyone
I see you walking slow and simple underneath the big black sun
Tell me why you want to be blind
I don't want to be normal like you
I know now every day
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be complacent
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be sedated
Yes I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be normal too, I can be normal too
I can be normal like you
I'm finally adjusting to watching Buffy in the living room, with other people.
::snort:: Actually, it wasn't bad. My mom was waiting patiently for 24, so she just watched BtVS by proxy (or is that by default?--no dictionary hand here...) I ended up explaining a lot of it to her, but fortunately FD was an episode that gave you a lot of exposition more subtly: Gile's righteous ranting about the fight to come named the evil; the was much talk of the chip that was taken out and its former purpose; Xander explaining how hard it must be for the Chinese potential to be uprooted from her home and told she might be a slayer, when all the potential slayers are getting killed; The FE taunting Andrew about his place in the group and killing his friend.... I ended up really only having to explain why everybody was staying at Buffy's house together.
Anyway, during the hall conversation between B&S about her date, mom announced calmy "I like him." I said "Oh, I do too." I tend to usually like prettier guys than she does, but in some cases like Legolas (OB) or JM, we are in full and utter agreement.
God, I have to get home to watch that again; it was so enjoyable.
Wood's purpose in this episode (besides being the hottest thing next to Spike) reminded me of one of the most central themes to BtVS: normal versus extraordinary. Which you choose to be, and how that choice affects your life for better or worse. Wood represents the normal-- as I've seen a few times on LJ aready, he's "like Riley only better." I think he's there to provide the contrast-- Buffy can pick normal Wood and find the normal relationship, or she can pick abnormal Spike and find the extra-ordinary relationship. I think we'll see her choose Spike, because if there's anything we know about Buffy rihgt now, it's that she wants the extra-ordinary. She is an extraordinary person, and she needs an extraordinary love.
So, here's a song I like, that this ep reminded me of. It applies to Buffy's character in particular, but also applies to the Scooby Gang as a whole. Because they all decided they didn't want "normal" a long time ago. And plus, it'd make a great music video for Buffy/Scoobies/Sunnydale.
Everclear
"Normal Like You"
Yeah they said you called me maybe yesterday
I don't even have the strength to pick up the phone
You wouldn't even know me since you went away
The Prozac doesn't do it for me anymore
Yeah you ought to take your medication every day
Be a good dog, live life in a wonderful way
Tell me why you want to be blind
I don't want to be normal like you
I know now every day
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be normal too
I heard those stupid people talk about you again
I just have to laugh to keep from hurting bad
Their simple minds just cannot seem to understand
You are neurotic and depressed
It doesn't mean that you're sad
You walk around oblivious to everything
You wear that party dress, black mascara
Like you're queen for the day
I will never be normal like you
You walk around oblivious to everyone
I see you walking slow and simple underneath the big black sun
Tell me why you want to be blind
I don't want to be normal like you
I know now every day
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be complacent
I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be sedated
Yes I get closer to the place inside
Where I can be normal too, I can be normal too
I can be normal like you
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Re: Charging down giants with a chamber pot on his head, cos windmills are dull!
Date: 2003-02-12 01:15 pm (UTC)"See giants son, not windmills!"
Not to insult your father, but... what the hell does that mean? I don't need to see giants or windmills, though I think windmills would be *easier* to see, if I had to look. Must be some strange british colloquialism I'm not suposed to understand...
What is normal anyway?
(I know you were just being rhetorical, but...)
In Buffyverse, the ideal of "normality" is a happily married couple with children and a house, where there are no demons, no destined calling, no need to suffer at a young age. It's been clearly and canon-wise defined as "the white picket fense" idea of a stable, fulfilled life. For Buffy, "normal" is everything that the humans around her are that she's not able to be because of her duty; "normal" is what everyone tells her that she should want in her life. When Buffy was first the Slayer, she didn't want to be, and sought out to leave LA and "be normal" in the small town of sunnydale. After killing the Master, dying temporarily, and then falling in love with Angel, Buffy stopped wanting "normal." When Angel left her, his parting reason was so that she "could have a normal life." Her friends and family only reinforced this expectation. Having a relationship with Riley and making herself love him was part of her desire to meet those expectations that everyone had for her, and to prove to herself that she could meet those irrational expectations.
What the audience and Spike already knows is that Buffy's concept
Re: Charging down giants with a chamber pot on his head, cos windmills are dull!
Date: 2003-02-12 03:14 pm (UTC)Over the years the whole story's become sort of a symbol for over-the-top nobility and foolish idealism, which because I am a sad geek often strongly reminds me of Spike and is where we get the word (and LJ mood icon! *g*) quixotic. (S'also where we got Jorge Luis Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote", which I'm reading for a class and is strange strange straaaaaange but in a good way...) Eh, too much coherent thought. Must watch trashy TV now.
Re: Charging down giants with a chamber pot on his head, cos windmills are dull!
Date: 2003-02-12 03:19 pm (UTC)And btw, I was going to tell you that you have the most fabulous VD icon. I love it. Reminds me of this:
Angelus: I'm still trying to decide the best way to send my regards.
Spike: Why don't you rip her lungs out? That might make an impression.
Angelus: Lacks poetry.
Spike: Doesn't have to. What rhymes with lungs?
::giggle::
Re: Charging down giants with a chamber pot on his head, cos windmills are dull!
Date: 2003-02-13 09:02 am (UTC)Borge isgreat! Lucky you getting to study him. I had to make do Thomas Hardy. Not the same let me tell you!