On Apr 25, 9:57 pm, Arbitrar Of Quality <tsm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> A reminder: Are these threads protecting vampires? Are they the bad
> Slayer now? Am I the good Slayer now?
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Seven, Episode 16: "Storyteller"
> Writer: Jane Espenson
> Director: Marita Grabiak
> The aspect of the episode that I think
> some people =96 including yours truly =96 don=92t spend enough time
> pondering is the way it=92s a way to view the show, and Buffy in
> particular, from a perspective outside that of the main cast we=92re
> normally stuck with. Kinda like the agenda of *every other faux-
> do***entary episode of a SF/F show ever made*.
It's also a disclaimer, or a reminder: Just as Andrew's re****tage on
the story is flawed by his weaknesses, delusions, and desires, so is
the show's narration of the story as a whole. The show is admitting
that it can't decide if it should tell a story of passionate romance
between Buffy and Spike or not; or make Buffy an old-school hero or
not; it can't decide if it wants to transcend and critique the classic
tropes of TV or embrace them. It wants to give us all what we want,
which is impossible. It's warning us that our expectations are now so
high that failure is unavoidable; and it's asking us to be
compassionate. The moral, if one is needed, is that this story will
work if the viewers and storytellers decide it's gonna work, in spite
of all its flaws. The unity that will be required of the Scoobies, and
which they nearly fail to achieve, is also being asked of the viewers.
There's that moment when Buffy says, exasperated, "Andrew, would you
just *stop* telling stories?" (or wtte). As every viewer is aware,
that's about to happen to BTVS: it will stop telling stories.
"Storyteller" is one of a series of small pauses-for-breath in s7 in
the long ramp-up to the big action-adventure finale. It's a last
moment for self-reflection before the battle starts in earnest.
> Season Seven, Episode 17: "Lies My Parents Told Me"
> Writers: David Fury and Drew Goddard
> Director: David Fury
>
> I try to be open to whatever story the writers want to tell, as long
> as it=92s done well. This isn=92t one of those times. Objectivity be
> damned. I *hate* the story being told, the culmination of the
> wholesale destruction of Giles=92s character that=92s been going on for
> the past two seasons, and no justification could ever make me enjoy
> watching it.
To me, it's linked to the next episodes, when everyone else's
character and motivation also has to be artificially retrofitted, in
order to engineer the idea of Buffy being evicted from the group.
Giles has to be dealt with first and separately, since his rejection
of Buffy is completely implausible. This episode tried to give some
further motivation to that idea. I think it might have worked if there
had been a serious rivalry between Wood and Giles (or even Spike and
Giles) for the role of Buffy's mentor. But instead the rivalry over
Buffy was a romantic one, which meant that Giles had little to do with
it.
> On the other hand,
> some truly great scenes are mixed in with all the dross, most notably
> anything involving Spike=92s mum. Or Spike himself, really; this one
> hits the balance of ****traying a Souled!Spike who=92s as much Spike as
> William. But those flashbacks=85 As I said originally, Langerfelt,
> with help from Marsters, makes me very fond of her pretty quickly, and
> then gets me to despise her in record time once vamped. It=92s a strong
> origin story
The episode works for me on this level. As long as I see it as Spike's
episode, it does the job. Wood's parallel origin story works fine in
the context of Spike's, and his willingness to abandon the real issue
to conduct his private vendetta comes across as what it really is: The
First's way of sewing strife among the allies. That's a classic
element of hero stories from the Iliad on down. Wood provides Spike
with a worthy opponent, leaving Buffy to be opposed to Faith (which
works), and leaving Giles to be opposed to ... oops, no one left but
himself.
Giles's character assassination might have been avoided, perhaps, if
we had seen him at war within himself; if the inner doubts of the
Watcher had finally been aired. If he had, frex, turned for help to
Buffy, that would have crossed a line that had never been crossed
before. A kid whose own father turns to her for advice and help is
truly alone in the world. In other words, I think there were ways for
the show to break the bond between Giles and Buffy without wrecking
Giles's character. The writers just missed them.
~Mal
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