In article
<56612ddd-a1d5-4d08-8e97-65c90acae3fe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Arbitrar Of Quality <tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> A reminder: These threads are delicate and toylike.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Seven, Episode 5: "Selfless"
> Writer: Drew Goddard
> Director: David Solomon
>
> And BTVS gets into itself again. Unlike "Beneath You," this isn't a
> small story that summons up a bunch of bigger stuff from the
> background. (Although stated that way, that also seems like a
> perfectly sound way to construct an episode.) "Selfless" is itself an
> inherently complex story whose topic is nothing less than the entire
> existence of one of the show's main characters. It's almost as epic
> for the viewer as it is for Anya, an endless lifetime of
> "selflessness" turned in a truly different direction. I don't know
> what a new channel-surfing viewer would think, but by nature, it can't
> be fully appreciated without having followed these people and what
> they've been through. So much about Anya is explained here that
> simply wouldn't have occurred to me, but it exactly fits what we've
> been shown. A story like this requires that the series dip into its
> bag of continuity, and it rises to the occasion, finding clever ways
> to work in things like Willow's ongoing struggle with herself, and her
> amulet from years ago, and what D'Hoffryn is really like. My original
> reaction to the brilliantly constructed argument was "ye gods, what a
> great scene," and indeed it is. It's the best "Scoobies arguing"
> sequence, even better than that other one that was so good, and that
> other other one.
>
> Something that I appreciated comes during the confrontation between
> Anya and Buffy. Something new this viewing, I mean, so that's in
> addition to the already acknowledged killer act break and the equally
> wonderful jump from song to present day. Anya's line "c'mon, Buffy.
> Don't you have a clever retort for me?" calls attention to the way our
> hero is almost completely silent during the fight sequence. Buffy's
> tried to kill her friends before, but this is set apart from the other
> times by her sheer intensity. This is a Slayer, doing what she sees
> as the thoroughly unpleasant job that no one else can. All in all, I
> rank this as my second favorite episode of _Buffy_, fini****ng behind
> only "Innocence," whose emotional impact is a little more
> overwhelming. One could make the case that "Selfless" is the deeper
> and more substantive of the two, though.
> Rating: SUPERLATIVE
I've always thought that Anya was trying to commit suicide by Slayer in
that fight scene, and that Buffy knew what she was doing, and was
refusing to co-operate. The climatic fight starts out with Anya in
super-strong demon form against Buffy with the sword. After Buffy stabs
Anya. Buffy just stands there and waits, knowing that Anya is going to
wake up again. Then when Anya has the sword, she stays in human form,
with human strength against Buffy. When Xander stops Buffy from driving
the sword through her chest again, Anya tells him to stop trying to save
her.
Buffy knows that Anya wants to die, and she is doing everything in her
power to find another way.
> Season Seven, Episode 6: "Him"
> Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg
> Director: Michael Gershman
>
> What is it that drives a person or people to come up with something
> like Dawn's cheerleading scene? Is there someone who's actually
> amused by the ritual humiliation of theoretically beloved characters?
> It's also possible that the viewer is meant to be cringing out of
> sympathy, but BTVS usually does that by playing for realism and
> universality.
I've never found humiliation to be amusing. Dawn's cheerleading scene
is one of the two sequences in BTVS that I find to be completely
unwatchable. (The other is the incredibly stupid Cordelia in "The
Wish.")
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
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