When They All Agree He's a Moron

There's this relatively early Family Guy episode - hang on, don't leave already, I'm just setting the stage - where Peter concludes he's a genius and takes a test to prove it. He finds instead that he is, Forrest Gump, basically. The hidden menu item for this is apparently, no one holds him responsible for anything he does. If he runs into the street causing a car to swerve and it's driver to be badly injured, well, he just doesn't know any better. I think this wildly overstates people's forgiving nature.

I've seen other characters in stories where it seems like all the other characters have come to a similar conclusion about them. Where there's just no point in being frustrated when they do inexplicable things. Michelangelo with the Ninja Turtles is one, but my go-to is probably Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Even when he was summoning a demon that made people sing and dance until they spontaneously combusted, ultimately killing a half-dozen people, at a point (Season 6) when he couldn't claim ignorance of the dangers inherit to fucking around with magic, no one ever called him on it. He never faced any consequences for his actions. It was as though Buffy, Willow and the rest all just sort of threw up their hands and said, "It's Xander, what do you expect?"

This can, as you might have guessed, annoy the hell out of me. Whether I'm just not a fan of that particular blessed character, or I'm a fan of another character who isn't getting the benefit of this generosity, it grates on the nerves. Especially when there's no reason for it given. I'm left to assume it's either lazy writing (the writers didn't want to deal with Xander being responsible for six deaths in their fun musical episode, so just sweep that under the rug), or they expect me to tacitly agree this is OK.

At the moment, I'm trying to decide if it's worse when the story does it, or when the fans of the character do it. Tony Stark is probably a good example of a character with fans just dying to excuse his every fuck-up, but my go-to for that phenomenon has to be Vegeta fans. When Vegeta not only decides to let Cell so they can become more powerful and give him a better fight, but then actively helps Cell by attacking other people who tried to kill it. 

His legion of defenders will insist it's everyone else's fault Cell achieved his perfect form, but not Vegeta's. Krillin should have killed Android 18, who hadn't killed anyone yet and was a victim of Dr. Gero, so Cell couldn't absorb her. Or she should have self-destructed. Goku shouldn't have agreed to let Vegeta train in the Time Chamber first (even though Vegeta insisted and there wasn't time for them to waste arguing about that). Trunks should have just killed Cell himself (except when he tried, Vegeta prevented it). 

And the reason they should have done all these things is because they should have known Vegeta is a fucking idiot who would mess everything up by actively helping the bad guy, to the extent of attacking his own son.

They don't frame it that way, of course. It's that the other characters should have known his "pride" or "Saiyan love of battle" would push him to do it. It comes down to the same thing. According to them, Vegeta is too stupid to be held responsible for his actions.

I'm really not sure which is more annoying. It happening in-story is harder to deal with, because that's the actual text, such as it is. Even if I come up with an alternative take, it's still a reaction to the original, which affirms its existence. The fans are ultimately irrelevant, but they can be all over the place, or extremely obnoxious about pushing their opinions into my face. I can avoid a particular episode or issue of a show or comic I don't like, and maybe that lets me avoid its impact, but avoiding obnoxious fans can be kind of tricky if I actually want to interact with, you know, other fans of that thing.

Sunday Splash Page #98

"Surprise In Stereo", in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #7, by Brian K. Vaughn (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Andy Owens (inker), Dave Stewart (colorist), Richard Starkings and Jimmy (letterers)

There had been other comics based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer while the TV show was still going, but they focused on stories that could fit somewhere within the margins of the episodes. This was the first series that was really a continuation of where the show left off after Season 7, with Buffy now in command of an army of 500 Slayers, attracting the enmity of all sorts of people.

I didn't give a shit about that. As far as the series went, I was always much more interested in Faith than Buffy (likewise more interested in Spike than Angel). So, when they solicited an arc focused on Faith, written by Brian K. Vaughn, whose Dr. Strange: The Oath mini-series I enjoyed, I was all in on that.

In this case, Giles tags Faith to go kill some high-born, British girl who's teamed up with a vaguely Gambit-sleazy warlock to kill Buffy. Love how the Scoobies always give her the stink-eye for her past fuck-ups, while also figuring it makes her perfect to do the work they rather not dirty their hands with. Faith has to learn to pass as aristocracy herself, but befriends the girl and tries to divert her off the path Faith's walked already. It doesn't work, because those sorts of things never do for her.

Anyway, it was an fun little 4-issue arc, which didn't convince me to continuing buying the series regularly after it concluded. I did pick up one more issue about 18 months later, a one-shot that focused on Faith and Giles and their traveling "help lost Slayers" road show, but it was written and drawn by someone else and not nearly as good. Season 8 eventually ended, and then Season 9 kicked off. That included Angel and Faith, which we already looked at in Sunday Splash Page #28.

That does it for the "Bs", other than the current Black Cat series, which I probably won't double-back to until after it's finished.

Man, There's Nothing To This Saving The World Stuff

Another board game, this time Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the game. You select a Big Bad from the various options, and try to stop them from bringing about the Apocalypse. Which requires defeating three Monsters of the Week, and protect the Townies from various generic Baddies.

Defeating Monsters requires having the appropriate items, so the players have to spend parts of their turns moving between locations in town, collecting the right items (Weapons, Tomes, Magical Ingredients, Crosses, etc.) You can also spend time defeating the generic Baddies so as to protect the Townies, since Townies getting eviscerated brings the end of the world ever closer. Each player picks one of the Scoobies to use, who have advantages and special abilities and such. But using the Special Action forces you to draw an Event Card, which usually places more Baddies and Townies on the board to kill/protect. So judicious use is advisable. Probably.

The game said it could be played in 30 minutes to an hour, but it took us closer to two, since we had to keep going back and checking the rules on when certain things had to be done, or what the monsters could do on their turn. Given how easily we ultimately cruised to victory, we both suspect we were doing something wrong. It wasn't clear if the Big Bad was supposed to have certain powers taking effect before it was "revealed" or not. The way the rules read, we thought he wasn't activated until he was revealed, and so no on powers, but maybe we were wrong. It did help that the first Monster of the Week was The Judge, who wouldn't get active at all until we were already 4 of the 12 steps to the Apocalypse. I was able to kill him before he ever did anything. And we kept drawing Event Cards that put Baddies on the board, but no Townies for them to attack. And we were careful to stay away from them, so they couldn't get any shots at us. Maybe Spike (me) and Giles (her) are just that outstanding of a duo.

So, fun enough, not reinventing the wheel among games, but the rules were unclear at times. My guess is, if you aren't a fan of the show, you can find other games which offer similar gameplay, and do it better. But if you do have a fondness for the Buffyverse, this might do the trick for ya.

One Pair Overstocks Hair Products, The Other Pouches And Belts

As I was typing Saturday's post, and yammering on about how Angel's expression suggests someone suppressing the urge to smile, I realized it was reminding me of something. Namely, my favorite scene from Cable/Deadpool.

Issue 41, as Cable's island sinks because of something from Mike Carey's X-Men run I didn't read. Sabretooth's loose, and using Irene as a shield to keep Domino at bay. Cable and 'Pool haven't been speaking recently, but Wade parachutes in, blasting Creed so Domino can get Irene to safety. They reach the evacuation craft and Cable asks about what happened to Creed. Domino replies simply, 'Wilson.' Cable gets a huge smile on his face and looks back in that direction. 'Really? Just when you think you know everything the future has in store. . .' Something to that effect. I'm working from memory there.

I like that scene for a few reasons. That Cable can actually be surprised, since he spent most of the series up to then playing the "I know everything 'cause I'm from the future!" card. More importantly, that he's pleasantly surprised, because Deadpool came through. I think Deadpool comes through more than people think, but I can't deny he screws up a lot. He has the wrong goals, the wrong motivations, he doesn't think things through, and he lets people down a lot.

He's Spike, in other words. Which makes Cable, Angel. Which isn't too out there. They both seem to aim high, save the world, save the future, slay the seemingly unkillable foe (Apocalypse, Wolfram & Hart). They're reserved, secretive, moody. They both get so wrapped up in their missions, they forget what the point is. That's usually when they screw up, and then they alienate their friends. Angel pushed away his crew more than once, and Cable's wrecked multiple friendships with people (G.W. Bridge, Domino, the X-Force kids), only some of which he was able to fix. Angel lost a kid to another dimension only for him to return much older and crankier; Cable is a kid who vanished into the future and returned older and crankier.

Spike and Deadpool tend to focus on more personal goals: love, respect, revenge, but they're capable of selfless acts. Mostly though, they seize on what looks like the quickest path to get what they want, and it usually ends badly. Wade tried to be registered hero, Cable made him look like such a loser he got fired. He tried to get some work done on his brain, the Black Box/Comcast/Gareb turned him into a sleeper agent meant to kill Cable. Spike tried to get a soul so he'd be a better person , it let the First use him as a killing tool. They both hurt the people they care about. Spike with Dru and Buffy, Wade with Blind Al, Weasel, Siryn, probably some others.

The relationship between the two aren't quite the same, since Cable didn't have a hand in creating Deadpool. Unless someone's retconned Cable into helping start Weapon X. But it seems like William became Spike at least partially in response to Angelus (the other part begin to distance himself from who he was as a human). Angelus basically lorded his strength, experience, and the opportunity to shag Dru and Darla over William, daring him to do something about it. Spike kills a Slayer. When Angelus returned in Season 2, Spike teamed up with the Slayer at least in part to screw Angelus over (and get Dru back, and save the world). Throughout his attempted courtship of Buffy and helping the Scoobies, before and after the soul, he was constantly being measured against Angel. That had to be frustrating and tedious, to not be measured on his own successes or failures, but judged by someone else's as well. I think the two of them are different enough they'll never be chums, but at the same time, they lived closely together for 20 years. There are things they can discuss with each other that no one else would really understand.

Cable pushed, and poked, and prodded at Wade, trying to get him to do the right thing (as Cable defined it), through threats, hiring him for jobs on the sly, and in his most questionable move, hooking Wade's subconscious into the Infonet so he could be bombarded with visual representations of his innermost doubts nonstop (that nearly resulted in a bloodbath). Given that Wade did show up to help, and then continued to try and do the right thing after Cable's apparent death, it seems like it worked. And I think Wade encouraged Cale to loosen up some. There was never the level of hatred between them the two vampires have, because most of Wade's attacks on Cable were just business, and Cable spent enough time as a gun-for-hire to understand that. They're still annoying, still dangerous, but there's not as much heat there, except when Cable's attempts to play God screw Wade over somehow. Even so, there's a strong level of trust, especially considering Wade's unpredictable tendencies. Deadpool's tried hard to be better, partially for himself, partially for others, and Cable (depending on the writer) relies on and cares about Wade more heavily than he might have ever anticipated.

The Bigger They Are, The More Likely They Die

Seeing Whistler smack around Nash and Pearl for mouthing off in Angel & Faith #13 made me so happy.

Not because I have anything against Nash and Pearl. Sure, they're bad guys, unrepentant killers, and the fact they worked for Angel when he was Twilight gives him another thing to feel guilty about. As if he didn't have enough. But as far as villains go, they're fine. I'll enjoy seeing them lose, and if that means dying -as it frequently does for villains in the Buffyverse - then so it goes. I won't mind if they survive to cause mischief, because if nothing else, they have a creepy style to them (the fashion sense Isaacs gives them helps).

The reason I was happy is because the more obviously powerful Whistler is, the more likely he is to wind up dead.

Hang on, let me explain.

I've never liked Whistler. I mentioned this back when I first saw him in this title. I never like characters like him. They stand around, saying cryptic bullshit that supposedly has significance and helps guide the hero, but they never actually do anything. They ride the coattails of the people who actually do. In Season 2, Whistler didn't stop Angelus, Buffy did (with an assist from Spike in the sense that he kept Dru out of it). Buffy might have been better off if she hadn't had to waste time listening to Whistler blather on. I give Xander Harris a lot of crap for being a git, as Spike might put it, but he does actually contribute. He gets into the fray, or at least fray adjacent. Whistler talks big, but always vanishes when the fur starts flying.

Now? Now he's actually getting involved. Angel didn't do what he wanted, so he's trying to manage it himself. What's more, he has an apparently considerable amount of power. Whether he's always had it, or if it's some unexpected result of the death of magic, I don't know. The point is, he has it, and he's not afraid to throw it around. Pearl and Nash are terrified of him, and these are two beings who killed dozens of Slayers, and squared off with Angel and Faith no problem.

Which means when Angel (and perhaps Faith, if she's refuses to let the Broodmeister do his Lone Ranger shtick) face him, they'll be massive underdogs. Which means they're going to win. Somehow. If he weren't so powerful, it might be different, because then Angel beating up some weak loser would be a letdown. Maybe even cause the audience to root for Whistler, or at least feel bad for him. The weaker he is, the more likely he would be to pull some sneaky trick to win. Since he's the one with the power, that option goes to the good guys. That's how it works. It may not be a pretty victory, but they'll manage. And like I said, in the Buffyverse, most villains end up dead. Which means I'll get to see that irritating little shit wiped out once and for all.

I can hardly wait.

I'm Not Hopeful About This Guest Appearance

I haven't seen Angel & Faith's June issue, but I've had concerns ever since Willow showed up on the last page of May's issue. It's not that I'm worried Gage will do something horrible to the character. No, I'm more concerned he'll have her say or do something that will really piss me off. Namely, that she'll engage in what seems to be the Core Scoobs favorite pasttime: looking down their noses at everyone else.

It's something they love to do to Faith, and I can't imagine Angel killing Giles' has left them kindly disposed towards him. Of course, it isn't as though Willow has a leg to stand on in that regard, not after Season 6, but hell, that's never stopped them before. Season 6 was nothing but Xander, Willow, and Buffy holding everyone else to standards they failed to meet themselves. Seriously, Xander summoned a demon that made people dance until they spontaneously combusted. He's responsible for more deaths in that episode than Faith ever has been. Does anyone ostracize Xander for that? No, and I'm sorry but he ought to know better by then. He's messed with magic before, seen Willow use it rashly, seen the aftereffects of Giles' ill-spent magic use. He can't use the "didn't know better" excuse, can he?

I have started to wonder if everyone in the Buffyverse knows Xander is too mentally deficient to be held responsible for his actions, but no one bothered to tell the audience. If I'm supposed to cut him that sort of slack, it'd be nice to know.

I don't mind so much if characters let their friends (and themselves) slide on things, since it isn't atypical behavior. I give people who have proven trustworthy in the past more leeway than people who haven't. It's the fact that no one else ever calls them on that behavior that irritates. It creates a disconnect between what I see - a person behaving in an unacceptable fashion - and what the writers and characters are trying to tell me I'm seeing, a person justified in acting the way they do. Which is not a pleasant reading/viewing experience, especially if I'm awaiting comeuppance.

Having An Angry Brit In Your Head Can't Be Fun

For the record, I don't believe Angel will successfully resurrect Giles. Could be for any number of reasons. Angel realizes it's the wrong thing to do. He can't find all the pieces of Giles' soul. He finds the piece that won't stop telling him this is wrong until he gives up. Or that piece keeps yelling until Faith thinks he's gone mad and stakes him. Or that Egyptian soul thing gets ripped out. Or Faith finally honors Giles' wishes, puts her foot down and stops this nonsense.

That being said, I'm not sure what will happen if Angel does manage it. That Giles will be furious is a certainty, but what twill he be able to do about it. I was reading some Australia-era X-Men comics I picked up recently, but I don't see it being similar to what developed between Rogue and Carol Danvers, where Carol could take control at times. If that happens here, there's a good chance Giles will walk them out into the sunshine. Which wouldn't bother me too much (I'm cool with it as a solo book for Faith), but they probably don't want to kill the character that gets top billing.

I suppose Giles could end up being a helpful presence eventually. He starts of angry, walls himself of in a portion of Angel's mind, but can't help from offering biting commentary, and then, the occasional useful piece of information. Eventually, he starts helping more regularly, and Gage could play with the idea of whether Giles has really come around, or if he's biding time until he can set them up. Has he come to grips with his situation, or is he still desperate to escape? If it's the latter, how far is he willing to go? Get Angel dusted, get Faith killed, destroy the whole world? Hmm, Giles could in essence become another Angelus. Someone Angel keeps locked up in his head, buried under guilt, who goes apocalyptic on things the second he gets a chance*.

The trick is - and this is something Angel has to cope with as well - we don't know how this will work. All are Giles' traits and knowledge going to be absorbed by Angel, like adding a bit of one color of paint to another. Or are they going to be two distinct entities, sharing the same body. Who has control, can it shift, if Giles feels perfect happiness, will Angel lose his soul, we have no idea.

* I can't recall where I read it first, but someone pointed out years ago that Season 2 Angelus didn't bear much resemblance to pre-curse Angelus. The one who ran with Dru, Darla, and Spike didn't have any interest in throwing the world into hell. In his own way, like Spike, he liked the world. Too many amusements and nice things to destroy it. But after 100 years of rats for food, the brooding, the terrible hairstyles, being blamed for every bad thing they did, when we've seen that Liam was a miserable waste of blood alive, and Angel's no choir boy, Angelus was just too angry. He wanted revenge on everything.

Time For Angel To Get On The Responsibility Bus

Even though it was his fault she'd lost her mind again, it was nice for Angel to offer to help Drusilla. Maybe he was doing it because he figured she could call off her extremely riled former followers, but it'd be nice if he showed some responsibility towards her.

It made sense that Angelus didn't worry about Dru. She was someone he destroyed for kicks, and kept around because her visions could be useful, assuming he could make sense of him.

But Angel, what's his excuse? That he spent most of his first century ensouled living in squalor off rats? We know that wasn't all he did. Perhaps the idea of helping people, whether we're talking Drusilla or her victims, simply didn't occur to him until Whistler introduced him to Buffy. That's been a few years now (would this be Angel Season 7?), but he's never made any effort to track her down. Spike brings her to Sunnydale. Wolfram & Hart bring her to L.A. It turns out she's Mother Superior. For some reason, he's never invested the time and energy to dealing with her, even though she was almost certainly killing people, and may start up again.

Which is strange. He created her. He bears responsibility for her as much as he does for every person he killed over the years. Whether it's to dust her once and for all, or try to find some place she can live safely, without risking others, he ought to have done something. But the thought never seemed to cross his mind until now.

Maybe it's a limitation of Angel's approach. He takes the classic reactive hero approach, where something bad happens, and he sets out to find the party responsible, and bring them to justice. That can lead to a situation where he only deals with the problems right in front of him, and that's rarely been Drusilla. There has, however, been a steady stream of other problems to keep him busy. So maybe he hasn't had the time. Plus, it's a big world, though Dru ought to stand out.

I saw a theory online once, that Angel ignores what Dru does (this goes for Spike as well), because he wants to distance himself from Angelus. In the "Daddy Issues" arc, he tried insisting that Angelus only exists when the soul is gone. Soul = Angel, No Soul = Angelus, no gradations. Taking that approach, he might find it better to adopt "out of sight, out of mind". He's Angel, he had nothing to do with making Dru who she is, she's just another vampire, in no way different or special from any other except for her gifts. If he admits she's more than that, that he is responsible for her, then maybe he's admitting the man he was before he was turned had something to do with what Angelus did to her, that he can't blame it all on the demon. Or Angelus is still there, even with the soul in-house, and so he feels a connection.

That could prove very dangerous to the foundations Angel tries to use to keep himself going, and that might explain the reason he's been uninterested in helping or stopping Drusilla up to this point.

Self-Deception Is A Necessary Tool, Sometimes

'You have no soul. You're not capable of doing anything selfless.' - Angel, to Drusilla, Angel & Faith #7.

My first reaction to that quote was irritation, followed by recognition that while a questionable claim, it's one that served as keystone to a lot of pyramids for the Buffyverse in general, and Angel in particular.

The irritation first. What about Spike? He fought alongside the Scoobies off and on from the climax of Season 2, through most of Season 6, without a soul. Yes, he was often working towards something. Wanting Dru back, needing blood, being in love with Buffy, but what about the summer she was dead? He stuck around and helped protect Sunnydale, because of a promise to a dead woman, who he believed lost to him forever? I suppose the selflessness of it could be called into question if we take the view that Spike wanted acceptance, and figured the Scoobies were a better bet than other demons, who regarded him as a turncoat. Turns out the Scoobs weren't much better, but you could argue he was trying to get something out of that as well. Still, to put himself at risk for people who barely tolerated him, because he wanted to keep his word, sounds at least close to selfless.

Still, we'll move on. What about Clem, or especially Lorne? Lorne helped Angel on several occasions, at great cost to himself, his club, and probably to his sense of self when he killed people for Angel in the series finale. Or Darla staking herself so Connor could be born? She's a vampire, what did she care about some baby that was only making life harder for her?

In this particular case, Dru admits she'd get something out of helping Angel, like she gets blood from these people who come to her looking for relief from their inner torments. It isn't a selfless act, but that hardly proves she's incapable of them, and it would seem there are other examples of beings with no soul (which seems to be defined as what animates a human being, versus whatever keeps vamps and demons moving) that could call that claim into dispute as well.

Still, Angel holding to it isn't a surprise. The concept one must have a soul to be worth something holds considerable sway in the Buffyverse. Buffy Season 6 tried to drive this home with the attempt to prove Spike couldn't be worthy of Buffy without one. What they actually succeeded in demonstrating was beings are capable of good and evil with a soul or without (Spike, but also Willow, Buffy, Xander), and one can very easily hurt someone they love (Spike and Xander were both guilty on that one). I doubt that was the intent. Buffy certainly felt Spike was more deserving of help come Season 7, when he had a soul, than the year before when he was steadily breaking down trying to love and help someone who desperately needed him one moment, and treated him like garbage the next. Maybe the Scoobs have smartened up about this particular blind spot of theirs in the comics, one can only hope.

This distinction between "soul = may be good or evil", and "no soul = EVIL!" is especially important for Angel, because it feeds into that martyr complex he has. As Drusilla pointed out, Angel acts as though he and Angelus are two different entities, and only one inhabits the body at a time. As long as Soul Boy is around, Angelus is not. If Angel gets his moment of perfect happiness, away he goes and here comes Angelus, trying to end the world or terrorize through tedious mind games.

This gives Angel the perfect excuse to play the suffering hero, because he can't take the chance on perfect happiness. He gets to make every saved life about how much he sacrifices. He could have fun, but if he did that, he might lose his soul, so instead he's going to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and make a big show of it in the process. Why, he even cut off contact with his son, that's how much he cares about protecting others (sarcasm)! Never mind his kid is a superpowered human offspring of two vampires, who is going to have unsavory types interested in him whether dad's around or not, and it might be good to have Angel as a regular presence those unsavory types have to consider before trying something. Nope, that's sacrificed on the altar of Angel's suffering, too.

Yes, Angel is right to be concerned about Angelus getting loose. But it's disingenuous to act as though Angel is the good guy and Angelus the bad guy. Going by some of his past actions, either Angelus is entirely capable of slipping out past the soul, or Angel's soul is a least a little receptive to the demon's suggestions. It's more convenient for him to not think of it that way, like it was more convenient of the Scoobies to keep Spike on the outside regardless of how many times he helped them. If they accepted that the soulless vampire might actually be at least a little trustworthy, it would upset their metaphysical apple carts.

It really shouldn't hold up now, though, with so many vampires following Harmony's rules, and restraining themselves from killing or siring. Presumably all those vampires are also soulless, and yes, they get something from it (blood, adulation), but they could get more by breaking the rules, and it would simply require rolling the dice as to whether a Slayer will catch them in the act and end them.

Some People Are Hard To Be Friends With

I really enjoy the dilemma Gage and Isaacs have presented Faith with so far in Angel & Faith. Namely, the dilemma of how to be a good friend to someone making bad decisions.

It didn't do Angel any good to sit around brooding (even if he is very good at it), so anything that gets him up and moving sounds good at first. Then it turns out he's decided resurrecting Giles will fix everything. Which, look, back when the Scoobies brought Buffy back, Spike was the only one who realized it was a stupid idea. When even Spike - impulsive, damn the consequences, do anything for love, including that, so whatta ya say now, Meat Loaf? Spike - knows something is unwise, that should be a tipoff it's not the smart play.

You'd think Angel, after all the time he's spent 'helping the helpless' to atone for his centuries of horrific acts, would know it can't be made all better with one stroke. He's the one who told Faith they never stop paying for their crimes*. Still, the big, grand gestures are a lot easier than the daily grind, so it's understandable he sometimes forgets.. It's just forgetting usually involves distancing himself from his friends, or taking over an evil law firm.

Now the problem becomes how far to support him. Faith knows this is a bad idea, she had a discussion with Giles about the very subject (with regards to the vulcanologist she killed in Season 3 of Buffy). She also knows Angel is too bull-headed to be talked out of it easily. If she threatens to withdraw her help if he doesn't drop this, she knows Angel will just go on without her. So she sticks with him, and makes her own plans to make him human with the Mohra demon blood.

I wouldn't say it's a good plan. There are people Angel could save as a vampire, that will die if he's only human. Not that he wouldn't try to save them, which is the critical flaw in her plan. Just because he wouldn't be a vampire, doesn't mean he'd stop trying to fight evil. Which means he'll wind up dead for real soon enough.

Also, if Faith succeeds, there's a very real chance Angel will get his nose bent out of shape over it, which could cause a rift between the two. This probably wouldn't be good for either of them, since neither one has a lot of people they can call friends, while they each have enemies lining up around the block. I think it'd be worse for Faith, to lose one of the only people who ever believed in her, or gave any sign they cared about her. I believe the official list is her first Watcher (Dead), Giles (Dead), Angel**. Maybe she'd be OK with it, feeling she did the right thing, but if he goes out and tries to fight evil as a human, and winds up dead, I could see her taking that badly.

That's kind of how things go for them, they support each other, regardless of what it costs them. Angel protected Faith from the flames of Buffy's self-righteousness, which didn't do the tentative "exes as friends" thing he and Buffy had any good. And Faith nearly killed herself capturing Angelus so he could be reensouled. Which is one of the things I like about those two, that they'll go to the wall for each other. This situation's a little different for Faith, though. A grand sacrifice isn't likely to straighten Angel out. If anything, he'd add Faith to his list of people to resurrect. What she has to do is figure out some way to convince him to redirect this drive towards something constructive. Which can be tricky. If she pushes too hard, he'll get defensive, and trying to force him off this path (by making him human) won't do anything but breed resentment, and lead him to carry out his plans on the sly.

Words have never been Faith's strong suit, so it'll be interesting to see if she can talk Angel down, or if she'll even try.

* Back in Season 4 of Angel, when they took the magic drug fueled trip through Angel's head.

** Xander might have qualified briefly during Season 3, but she blew that to Hell with the nearly killing him and all.

Another Discussion Of Good And Evil?

There's that Edmund Burke quote, 'All that is required for evil to triumpg is for good men to do nothing'* I've been thinking, does that mean someone who fights against evil is "good"? As fiction fans (and especially as comic fans) we've all seen stories where the villains team-up with the heroes to take down some greater menace.

The Rocketeer, for example. Late in the movie, the gangsters team up with the Feds to fight the Nazis. Are they good men? I'm sure they think so. Mobsters usually seem to be portrayed as thinking of themselves strictly as enterprising, but strict, businessmen. Simply providing goods and services the public demands, without concern for piddling things like laws. Actions tend to speak louder, and their actions up to that point in the film would point to them not being good. So for that brief moment, and only then, they are good men? That could be it, since we could argue that at that moment, they were motivated by some nationalistic pride**, rather than their usual interest in money. It wasn't driven by purely selfish reasons. Unless it was because bootlegging would be harder in a Nazi-conquered America.

The example I think started this was the conclusion of Buffy Season 2. Spike helps Buffy save the world, but his reasons seemed to be: 1) Screw over Angelus/Angel, because he hates him. 2) Get Drusilla back, and well away from the Slayer. 3) He likes the world how it is, as it is. None of those motives are exactly "good", since one of the reasons he likes the world is all the people there are for him to kill and eat. Still, he did help, to the extent of keeping Angelus from taking a chainsaw to Giles, and keeping Buffy from having to fight Dru and Angelus simultaneously. So I'm not sure one could say Spike was a good person, but he still chose to do something.

I guess the mobsters and Spike were good when compared to what they were fighting against, so it could be a relative thing, but I'm not sure less evil = good. I certainly think a person can go against their typical impulses, so maybe they were "good" in that moment, and that's really all that's required.

That's it for me until next Thursday, I leave it to you to discuss amongst yourselves.

* I'm not sure that's the exact phrasing. I've seen "is that good men", and "all that is necessary" as well.

** Though I'd say nationalism isn't always a good motive. Can lead to isolationism, xenophobia, imperialism. Might get some positive results out of those occasionally, but I wouldn't bet on it.

My Scott And Jean

I've been debating throughout the day whether to get with this meme, or do the post I originally had planned, but I finally figured I might as well. I haven't taken part in a meme for awhile, and I haven't really ranted about anything too recently, so why not?

So here should be the link to the description of what "Scott and Jean" means (as I type this, my computer keeps telling me there's an internal server error every time I try and load the page. It's basically something geek-related you feel so strongly about, you can't really debate it, rationally, I think. I have a few of these, of varying intensity, so I've been trying to decide which to focus on. I thought about "Cassandra Cain as a villain/killer", but I don't get angry about that anymore, so much as I just ignore stories which don't jibe with my view of the character (Beechen's Batgirl mini-series, for example). Maybe One More Day, since I don't see why it was necessary to remove the marriage so Peter Parker can have a supporting cast. Hey, I'm glad Pete has a supporting cast, but when JMS put Pete and MJ back together, Paul Jenkins kept including the wacky apartment neighbors he created previously, so I don't think the marriage was the issue, as much as the unmasking and having him move into Stark Tower. But I chalk that up to lazy writers and move on. I guess with anime there's my distinct feeling that as far as the Tenchi Muyo series go, Tenchi ought to wind up with Ryoko, and that prissy princess Ayeka can take a long walk off a short pier into a black hole infested with space piranha, but even there, I don't find myself getting actively riled about it. So I finally settled on the Scooby Double-Standard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6.

I've complained about this before, in reference to the Spike/Buffy relationship of Season 6, and the different treatment Faith and Willow receive, compared to their relative crimes. Oddly enough, unlike most things that bother me, where I complain about them on the blog, feel better, and can sort of move on, I can't quite let this one go. I suppose it's because I liked, or at least in Buffy's case, could tolerate the characters before, but was actively wishing for their deaths by the end of the season. There's just something that bothers me so much about how Xander, Willow, and Buffy all pull various crap on other characters, then skate on it. Xander bails on Anya at the altar, then when she has drunk comfort sex with Spike(who had just been told by Buffy it's over between them*), Xander acts as though he's the hurt party, and was about to stake Spike, rather than deal with his own inadequacies. Plus, of course, Spike can't fight back, so Xander can beat him up as much as he needs to feel like a big man.

Then Buffy acts like Spike wronged her by sleeping with Anya, after Buffy freaking broke up with him, and then he gets chewed out by Dawn about hurting Buffy later, and it all ignores the loads of shit Buffy dumped on him throughout the season. The beatings, the insults, diminishing his every attempt to improve himself (which he was doing for her), occasionally pretending they could be friendly when they were alone, then treating him like dirt as soon as her friends showed up. And she gets away with it! No one calls her on this bullshit! And then everyone acts horrified that Spike did something bad (which assaulting Buffy in the bathroom was, I'm not denying that), when they spent the entire season telling him he was bad, that he was a monster, a thing, that he couldn't ever be good. Here's a thought: You want someone who's been evil in the past to stop being evil? Give them encouragement when they do something good. Let them know you recognize their efforts, and appreciate it. If all you do is mock or belittle them, you shouldn't get to act hurt when they decide it's not worth the hassle and revert to old habits.

And yes, Buffy consistently defends and protects Spike in Season 7. Swell, except I still think that support would have done more good when he didn't have his soul. Also, near as I can tell, her friends still don't understand the damage she (and they) did to him the previous year, which probably contributed to the nervous breakdown that lead to the assault attempt, so there's no recognition that, yeah, Buffy really ought to assume some responsibility for Spike, and maybe we should too, since we treated him like dirt, except when we needed him to act as muscle for us. Bunch of poncy bastards, the lot of them.

I've gone into the Willow/Faith thing before, so I won't bore you by repeating all of it (here's one example, the rant in the last footnote). For me, it boils down to accepting responsibility, where the core Scoobs don't, and the others do. Faith accepts she screwed up, goes to prison, stays there until she's needed. Spike decides he screwed up, that he can't be good without a soul**, goes to get one. Anya had a chance, after Xander caught them, to let Spike make a wish against Xander and she restrained herself, because she'd grown to the point she didn't really want vengeance for herself. Meanwhile, Xander's acting like bailing on your bride on your wedding day is no big deal, Buffy's (for a long time) unwilling to risk her friends' scorn by admitting what she was doing with Spike, and I still don't think they know about the beatings she gave him, and Willow gets to foist the blame for her actions off on the magic. Funny, I recall Giles accepted the responsibility for that demon he and his friends summoned back in their youth, even though that was also dark magic, just like what Willow was messing with. Can't quite see the difference there myself.

So, there it is, hopefully for the last time on this blog. Tomorrow, making fun of stuff from War of Kings #1!

* And for the record, I'm glad she ended it, since she was killing him by inches, but she doesn't get to act proprietary towards him afterwards. Where I come from, if you break up with someone, you don't get to be mad if they screw someone else later. You want to be their one and only, then say so.

** Again, I think if the Scoobies had simply encouraged him a bit, he wouldn't have needed the soul. He was struggling to do good, but the point is he was making the effort.

Trying For Tragedy With Swords And Hell Portals Instead Of Bridges And Pumpkin Bomb

Today was one of those days where you wake up hoping things will go well, and they almost immediately do not. Which is OK; it's annoying, but I can put my head down and bull through. Except every so often things start to go smoothly. I get hopeful, maybe the day is starting to turn around! Then it immediately reverts to the way things were going previously. Work bogs down, and frustration rises. I think of the argument Andy and Red had in Shawshank Redemption, after Andy played opera over the loudspeaker. Where Andy insists music is important, because it gives hope, and Red retorts that hope can get a man killed, and it's best to just give up on that. In the ugly moments, I chide myself for getting hopeful when things start going well, but I can't help it. Even now, I'm hopeful tomorrow goes more smoothly than today did.

On to more Buffy-related musings. What I was thinking about: Was the Buffy/Angelus fight at the conclusion of season 2 that universe's version of the Death of Gwen Stacy*? What originally amused me about that idea was that in the Buffyverse, Norman and Gwen are in the same body. You have Angelus out to destroy the world, who Buffy shows up planning to slay, and her love interest Angel, who she actually ends up sending to Hell, since Willow popped the soul back in him right as Buffy ran him through.

{Before we go further, I should point out I haven't watched any Buffy in several years now, so I admit ahead of time that recollections will be foggy. Hopefully they don't completely wreck my points.}

Angelus has big aspirations, as the Goblin supposedly had***, though a bit less "power grab", more "burn the world". Angelus has no problem using the fact that Buffy has feelings for his face against her, tormenting her by showing up at her house and telling Joyce about his and Buffy's relationship, popping up randomly while she's patrolling just to tease her, tormenting her friends****. Norman doesn't do as much of that, perhaps because all that amnesia keeps him from holding onto Spidey's secret identity long enough to do so, but once he gets it and keeps it long enough, he goes after Gwen.

It's not perfect by any means. The Green Goblin had become Norman's escape from all the problems he couldn't deal with in his life (kind of like Peter Parker, actually), and his opportunity to take his frustrations with those out on other people that he felt he could safely blame for these problems (unlike Spider-Man). I don't think Angelus is trying to escape anything (except the fact he was a goody-goody Slayer helper for awhile, which probably explains some of the torment). He just wants to destroy the world, because he thinks it's a good idea*****.

As to Angel/Gwen, Gwen was originally a real spitfire, who gradually grew more tame and kind of wimpy, and spent a lot of time complaining that Peter wasn't around, or hating Spider-Man because she blamed him for her father's death. Angel was (based on what we've been told) a real wreck until Whistler showed him Buffy and told him she could use help. He does spend a lot of time mooning over her, and getting bent out of shape when she gets moody. I think Angel as Gwen works best if you compare him to Spike and her to Mary Jane, in which case they both come off looking kind of demure in comparison. MJ's the real party girl, and compared to Mr. Punk Rock, enjoys many human comforts, Angel is considerably more restrained.

In the final showdown, Buffy kills the person she cared about, without meaning to. I mean, she is trying to run Angelus through, but then the soul comes back, and well, that was a rough scene for both characters. Spider-Man was trying to save Gwen, while Buffy was trying to save the world. Buffy often held off killing Angelus through season 2 because of her feelings for Angel, which resulted in various problems for her friends. Spider-Man doesn't try and turn Norman Osborn in, partially because Norman doesn't seem to remember what he did, partially because if going to jail jogs his memory Spidey will have troubles, and because Norman is the father of his best friend.

The point I see frequently in reference to the Death of Gwen Stacy was that it was the end of the Silver Age, as a major character dies, and dies because the hero failed to save them from a villain (or actually kills the character themselves******). With Spider-Man specifically, the argument goes, it was a turning point because it's when being Spider-Man actively harms people Peter cares for, and maybe at that point he ought to have hung up the webs. In that sense it's a less effective comparison, because I think Buffy was a darker show to start with, the Amazing Spider-Man. Buffy died (briefly) in the first season. Xander had to stake a vampire that was one of his friends. Buffy had already nearly lost Giles because Angelus killed Jenny Calendar, Willow's in the hospital because she was helping to get Angel back, and Buffy had a friend from her pre-Sunnydale days show up, tell her he knew she was the Slayer, and that he was going to barter her life to Spike in return for becoming a vampire (to avoid dying of some illness he had). Buffy escaped, and left her friend and his vampire wannabe friends trapped with a large group of unhappy vampires. Hmm, that probably didn't end well. So the show was already pretty dark, but this is when Buffy abandons being the Slayer, fleeing to L.A. She destroyed someone she cared about, but not before he wreaked havoc on the lives of her friends, and she can't handle it, so she jumps ship.

The argument can be easily made that it isn't her responsibility anymore, hasn't been since the Master killed her and Kendra got tapped (by this time Faith would be on duty, since Dru killed Kendra), but she had continued to accept those responsibilities, until now. The issue that comes with that is, her friends try to carry on without her, exposing themselves to dangers they aren't really equipped for. That leads to conflict between Buffy and the Scoobs, since Buffy took off without letting them try to help her, and left them feeling responsible for doing the slaying in her absence. It isn't the first time there are conflicts about Buffy freezing her friends out when they want to help (that was where season 2 started, with Buffy angry and moody, not having dealt with dying in season 1), or arguments about the role of the Scoobies in all this, but it feels as though something changes there. The Scoobies are definitively involved in the protecting the city now, demonstrated by their actions in her absence, but they also defer to her as the leader, admitting they need her there to carry most of the load, while they help as they can. That seems to feed the conflicts, because occasionally, the Scoobies disagree with their leader, and she tends to bristle at that. I think it marks a point where the relationships Buffy has with her friends even start to be less upbeat.

There's probably a lot that could be discussed about the effect it had on her romantic relationships, that she sent the person she loved to Hell (as opposed to Spike, who she simply put through Hell), but I'm not sure I can analyze that. It is interesting that the specter of Angelus looms over Buffy and Angel when he returns, wrecking any chance they have of starting up again. The disaster of having a supernatural boyfriend probably helps guide Buffy into the fling with Parker (disaster), and the longer term mess with Riley. In each of those cases, i think Buffy's been burned by following her natural attractions and so she tries to avoid them, and it ultimately doesn't work, and people wind up hurt.

The death of Gwen looms over Peter quite a bit, leading to a change in his relationship with MJ (as she gets a bit more serious, and becomes a closer friend and confidant), and certainly boosts his attempts to guard his secret identity, so it can't happen again. He dates Deb Whitman, and keeps it from her even as it starts to drive her nuts. Gwen and Norman's deaths, drive a wedge between he and Harry at different times over the next couple of decades. If we consider the Ultimate Universe, where the stories are certainly informed by the originals, Gwen's death (plus MJ's near misses) cause Peter to push MJ away completely, and eventually date Kitty Pryde. I could see that being an appeal of the Black Cat when she showed up (I mean in the Marvel Universe), but I can't confirm that as a reason.

I think I'm out of steam, so I turn it over to you. Tomorrow, a post about Spider-Man. No Buffy-related stuff! Feel free to throw confetti if you like. I won't take it personally.

* For the purposes of this discussion, we're going with the original reasoning behind the events, as presented in the actual story, not the Sins Past reason or whatever the current reason given is, in the Brand New Day world**.

** I'm curious how it works now, with the mass forgetting of Peter's identity. But that's what I plan on getting to tomorrow, so if you've got some thoughts, please hold them 'till then, if you would.

*** Someone, I forget who, said that prior to the '90s Clone Saga naming him as its mastermind, Norman was not the intricate planner Harry was. Harry would play all sorts of mind games with Peter, even after he died. Norman had tried to become a crime boss, failed miserably, and after that, when he went into Goblin mode, he just focused on hunting down and destroying Spider-Man. It was him being tagged as the guy behind all the clone mess that got him his "scheming mastermind" label. I haven't read much of the Lee/Ditko/Romita-era Spidey, so I can't confirm or deny that theory.

**** Though he certainly got more than he bargained for when he killed Jenny Calender, huh? Giles with the flaming baseball bat was awesome.

***** I considered comparing him to the Joker, but I think the Joker has a point to what he's doing. It's to establish that everything is chaotic, that there is no point, and people who try to establish order on the world are fooling themselves, but it's still a point. Angelus seems more childish, destroying the world just because he can, which I guess makes him more like Superboy-Prime?

****** I have never liked that it's Spidey webbing her that kills Gwen. I mean, his girlfriend died at the hands of a crazed man who happens to be the father of his and Gwen's good friend, and he couldn't save her. Isn't that enough of a kick in the nuts, even for Spider-Man? You really have to throw in, "And it was your miscalculation with your webbing that killed her!"?

The Joys Of Leadership: You Can Tell Others To Do What You Will Not

I've got a few more thoughts on the Buffy/Faith things I was discussing this weekend I want to get to, so that's where I am at today. So one of the other complaints I saw about the arc starring Faith in the current Buffy comic was that there was no way that the Scoobs would ask Faith to go and assassinate this other Slayer. After all, the last time she killed someone, she went off the rails until she wound up in a coma. When she came out of the coma, she went back to attacking them, then went after Angel, with some Wesley-torture along the way.

A couple of responses to that. One, the commenter seems to be assuming that Faith hasn't grown as a person, learned anything from that whole experience that might help her. Originally, Faith tried to deny the incident bothered her at all, not only to Buffy, but to herself, which is not a healthy attitude. I think when the comic shows Faith consistently marks her arrival at her apartment by angrily stabbing her stake into the wall, combined with her attempts to get a passport and leave Cleveland, it suggests she knows she's not happy with where she is or what she's doing, so at the very least she isn't lying to herself anymore. Plus, that denial the first time around left her deaf to the people who truly wanted to help her (that'd be Xander and Angel). This time around, she hears Giles when he tells her she isn't the first person to screw up royally as a teen, and that he gets feeling the need for atonement*. She knows now there are people who care about her, that believe in her, and that makes a difference. By the end of the arc, Faith wants to travel and try to help other Slayers from not making her mistakes, so she is definitely not the same person she was in Season 3.

Secondly, who else could they send? Buffy obviously can't go, with her being the target (even assuming she would kill Gigi). Gigi's been killing other Slayers for awhile, so sending one of the newbies is risky. I think Gigi's Warlock Master would notice if you tried to send Willow, and Giles ruled out sniping her from a distance, so what's that leave? Giles or Xander trying to sneak in and kill a Slayer at close range? It is to laugh. Listen to me laugh. Ha. Ha. Ha, ha.

I think what amused me about that criticism of the story's logic was the claim that putting Faith in a situation like this, where she could go back down that same dark road, is completely unlike the Scoobies. Let's set aside whether Giles thinks the same way as the Scoobs (I'd say no). What amused me was I recalled Buffy telling Willow and Spike to confront their fear of their dark sides for the greater good. She told Willow she needed to get over her fear that using heavy-duty magic would drive her evil again**, because as things stood, she wasn't helping enough. Then she got on Spike for not being a good fighter since he got his soul, and how she needed the old Spike back, because he'd be useful in the battle to come. You remember the old Spike, brutal killer, Slayer of Slayers? The one Buffy only escaped from in their first battle thanks to the intervention of Joyce Summers and a fire ax? Both come in the same scene, and in that same episode, Buffy meets the fellows who created the first Slayer, by infusing some girl with the essence of a demon to give her its power or something like that. They offer Buffy more power (apparently the connection to that demonic force has been diluted), saying she'll need it to beat the First Evil, and she turns them down.

Why I think that's interesting is that one of Buffy's fears has seemed to be the essence of the Slayer itself. When she and Faith first met, Faith talked about how much she enjoyed getting out there, slaying the baddies, and how it left her feeling like finding a steak or a guy afterwards. Buffy makes some weak joke in response about how sometimes she craves a fat-free yogurt after slaying. At the start of season 5, when she meets Dracula, she finds herself going out in the night, hunting, as she puts it for demons to slay, as opposed to patrolling earlier in the evening. She tells Giles this scares her, and she needs to know more about where her power came from. Buffy consistently tries to deny any sense that she enjoys the slaying part of being a Vampire Slayer, and if she starts to enjoy it, she gets worried.

Buffy's met the First Slayer (in a dream), and she's seen what happened with Faith, so perhaps she has good reason to fear, but still, it's hypocritical to stand there and order other people who are trying very hard to rein in their darker tendencies to get over it when one isn't ready or willing to do so themselves. It's like one of those war movies, where the Bad General keeps ordering his men to throw themselves at the Fortified Enemy Position on a Nameless Hill, while he sits comfortably safe behind the lines enjoying his steak and fine wine, while the Kind Squad Sergeant grieves, fumes, shares his rations, and tries to keep his men alive, without disobeying orders. Of course, the Kind Squad Sergeant usually dies taking the position singlehandedly, or saving the peach-fuzzed kid in the outfit, so I'm not sure who in Buffy season 7 would play that role.

* And I can't help thinking, "Why the hell didn't you tell her this in season 3, Giles?" Maybe she's too deep into denial for it to sink in, but I felt she respected Giles - perhaps because his concern for Buffy reminded her of her first Watcher's (the one Kakistos killed) concern for her - enough to listen. Xander and Angel tried and failed to reach her then, but I think Faith figured Xander was just looking for another roll in the hay, and Angel, well, he is a vampire. One that tried to destroy the world, no less. Plus, his attempt to talk to her came after he clocked her with a bat (shovel?) and chained her to a wall in his home. Not really conducive for sharing of feelings.

** This feels like more excuse making for Willow, which started in Season 6, when they started arguing the magic she was using was dark, and that's why she did bad things. This as opposed to, Willow likes magic because it gives her control over the situation, but she abuses that power because she thinks her intelligence makes her more perceptive of what's best than the others. So Willow went from being Jerk-style Batman to a coke addict. Boo.

Easy To Say, Hard To Mean

Hmm, that title sounds vaguely like a Claremontism. Bit of news, I'll be getting my comics tomorrow, so reviews Monday, and I'm sure Adorable Baby Panda will swing by Tuesday. So that'll be two days of joy. I mention that, because I figure it means I can go ahead and rave a little bit more today. I'm shooting for "calmly sarcastic", but may drift into "angry bellowing". Or the Internet equivalent, anyway.

I mentioned that I found the image for yesterday's post on scans_daily. I know some people in the blogrealm are not big fans of the site, and they have their reasons. I find it useful for introducing me to old comics I might want to go hunting for, and occasionally funny. Still, I probably ought to stop reading the comments. But, as I hadn't cured myself of that habit by yesterday, I ambled through the comments for the posts covering that arc from Buffy Season 8. One comment I saw more than once was that the fight between Buffy and Faith in issue #8 shouldn't have happened because those two made peace in Season 7. Well, OK, let's chat about that. Or I will. You don't have to if you don't want, but it's probably good for someone not as much of a Faith homer as I am to balance me out.

Anyway, in the issue itself, Buffy has been teleported without warning to Gigi's estate, which causes her to throw up. When she stands up, Gigi kicks her in the face and starts talking about how she thought Buffy would be harder to kill than all the other Slayers she'd disposed of. They fight a bit, then Faith, in an attempt to rescue Buffy, tackles her out a window, causing them to fall into a shallow pool. Given those circumstances, and their past history, I can completely understand Buffy thinking Faith's gone to the Dark Side again, at least initially. As for Faith, well she probably didn't appreciate her attempt to help Buffy being rewarded with punches, so she hit back, which certainly isn't going to help things, even if she's just trying to slow Buffy long enough to explain. Then when Faith tries to explain Giles sent her there undercover, Buffy pops her again, and says Giles never trusted Faith, and neither did she. Ooo, that's hitting a sore spot with Faith, so then she actually does try and kill Buffy, until she gets herself back under control, by which time Willow manages to teleport Buffy back home. So the whole sequence is largely a product of Buffy being involved in a fight for her life when Faith makes her presence known, and both characters letting tempers get the better of themselves. Happens all the time.

But let's consider the supposed peace the two established in Season 7. It was primarily Buffy showing a willingness to let bygones be bygones, since she was the one that had been wronged. Well, ask yourself if, on an occasion where you've been wronged, have you ever, at a later date, told that person "It's OK," or "I forgive you"? If so, did you ever say it and not really mean it? Perhaps you were in a good mood, they looked down in the dumps, and you felt like trying to raise their spirits, or you were just being polite, or you were trying your best to mean it, but couldn't pull it off. Hey, we're not perfect, and we can only try our best to move forward. And when I think of the scene, I see Buffy making a real effort to bridge the gap between them, and Faith accepting that it's probably the best B can do.

I mean, Faith seemed to be struggling for that since she got there. She took Dawn's 'Are we letting the escaped murderer stay here?*' line, she didn't lash out when Buffy popped her for taking the Potentials to the Bronze to unwind without consulting Generalissimo Summers first**. She's trying to follow orders, but she's still herself enough to call Buffy on her dictatorial attitude, which inadvertently gets her named as new head honcho, which wasn't something she was expecting. So she tries to lead, and nearly get s blown up for her troubles. Meanwhile, Buffy stumbles on the fabled axe-thing, kills Stupid Preacher Guy, and finds the panicked Potentials Faith brought with her and saves them from Super-Vamps. Buffy is bathed in glory and resumes command, and Faith is dinged up in Buffy's bed. So Buffy's feeling good, she knows Faith tried her best, and so she tries to give Faith the forgiveness she wants. And Faith accepts the offer. maybe she believes it, maybe she just figures it's the best she can hope for***.

I'm trying to think of a good comparison from comics. I suppose you could compare it to Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns he mowed through during the Parallax days. I know a few of them (all?) have made peace with Jordan since then. Arisia and Tomar for sure, I think. But you have to wonder, if Hal starts acting a little wonky, are they going to get ready to take him out, just in case it wasn't Parallax (or the Yellow Bug is back inside him)?

* I can't remember whether Dawn said "convict" or "murderer". I think it was the latter, and if so, well Dawn, given that Andrew, Anya, Giles, Spike, and Willow are already staying at the Summers' home prior to Faith's arrival, I'd say, yeah, the murderers are staying there. If it was convict, well, just because you went to prison doesn't mean you're guilty, and just because you haven't been to prison doesn't mean you're an innocent. Yes, Faith was guilty of what she was convicted of, but like I said, Andrew's guilty too, and he hasn't been convicted.

** I'm not sure which part was what caused Buffy to punch her, taking the kids out of the house, or not asking permission.

*** I kind of got the feeling that the body-swap in Season 4 provided Faith with some insights into Buffy, and who she is, and what it's like to be the Slayer people believe in, and are glad to see arrive to save the day. I'm not as certain Buffy learned anything about what it means to be Faith, though to be fair she had to spend some time escaping those Watcher idiots, and getting her friends on her side. Doesn't perhaps provide opportunities for reflection on the lives' of others.

Perhaps The Tea Was Just Tea

Late this week, I found myself thinking about last year's Brian K. Vaughn-penned arc in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the arc starring Faith. In particular, I though of the scene when Giles first approaches Faith with the job of killing rogue Slayer Gigi, who is planning to kill everyone's* favorite Slayer, Buffy. What really stuck with me was Giles complimenting Faith on the fine selection of teas she had in her apartment. I thought to myself, "That can't be right? Faith with tea? I must be misremembering." A quick search on Scans_daily confirmed I wasn't misremembering, and so I concluded this scene must have some significance. Because I'm bored enough to figure if it came to me a year later, it must mean something. I could be wrong, but I figured it might be worth a lark trying to determine that. So here's the page in question.
First order of business: I didn't know what what Faith meant when she says she uses the smelly bags on the dark circles under her eyes. On the assumption she's being straight with Giles, I did a brief internet search, and found that chamomile has a wide variety of uses, including being placed in a heated bag and used as a fomentation to reduce swelling caused by abscesses. Well, I kind of doubt that Faith is having issues with pus-filled regions near the sinuses, but perhaps the fomentation could also reduce swelling from bruises, say from a punch in the face? Faith has never struck me as someone particularly concerned with her well-being, so long as she got the job done. Or perhaps the dark circles are a result of lack of sleep**, which might be a sign of her state of mind. It seems fairly obvious, even within the arc, that Faith is troubled by many things: her life before being Slayer, the killing of the deputy Mayor***, working for the Mayor, the time in a coma, probably her time in prison, and so on. She has a lot considerable weight on her.

What's interesting is, chamomiles are also highly recommended as a sedative, and at least one website listed them as a cure for nightmares. I would figure that Faith learned about the use of chamomile as a facial application from a person, or by doing a little research on her own, so it's seems strange she wouldn't have stumbled across that bit of information as well. If lack of sleep is causing dark circles under the eyes, why not drink the tea to get a sounder sleep?

1st hypothesis: She doesn't know it can be used in that manner. This means the dark circles are caused by something not sleep-related, like say, getting punched in the face. It's possible, but I don't like it. Again, I think the use as a sedative is more commonly known than the other (at least, it came up more frequently on the websites I checked. Heck using chamomile to ease menstrual issues came up more often than to reduce abscessed induced swelling). Besides, Faith plays at being none too bright, but it's not accurate. She may not have shown much interest in school, but that doesn't make her dumb. She's usually pretty quick on the uptake, especially when it comes to reading people****, and she picked up enough of what Giles threw at her in this arc to fool Gigi into believing she came from an upper class family. I think she's capable of looking up medicinal uses of chamomile.

2nd hypothesis: Faith does know chamomile can aid sleep, and does use it that way, and doesn't want Giles drinking up her supply. Giles comments that her cupboards are fairly bare, which combined with her crapbox apartment suggests a shoestring budget. I have no idea how expensive chamomile tea is, but Faith might not want to spare any. In that scenario, she mentioned the use she did to put Giles off-kilter. You notice that in the next panel, Rupert sets the cup down and wipes his mouth, suggesting this was information he could do without. Faith doesn't lose any more tea, and she doesn't have to be overtly rude to do so, which I think is important to her when it comes to Giles. Faith may know she isn't his beloved Buffy, but that doesn't mean she doesn't wish she was. Faith would very much like to have people that care about her as much as the Scoobs care about Buffy, but outside of (maybe) Angel, and (in Season 3, pre-strangling) Xander, she doesn't have it. She doesn't have much, which probably could stoke feelings of protectiveness towards what she does have, but she wouldn't want to offend Giles, so she just tries to mildly gross him out.

3rd hypothesis: Faith knows about chamomile's use as a sleep aid, and chooses not to use it in that manner anyway. One thing I noticed with Faith (especially in Angel Season 4 and Buffy Season 7) is she doesn't have the highest sense of self-worth. She sits in prison, when she could easily escape, because she thinks that's where she belongs*****. She's willing to throw her life away to bring Angel back, because she thinks that's proper, or take a punch in the face from Buffy without retaliating, because she wants to prove she's on Buffy's side this time. She takes whatever bit of friendliness or compassion people toss her, and pretty much figures it's the best she can hope for, or that she deserves. In that light, I can see Faith feeling she shouldn't get relief from any nightmares, because she did those things, and ought to suffer for them. She might still play at being the party girl that let everything slide off her back that she pretended to be in Season 3, but it's even less true in Season 8 than it was then.

4th hypothesis: I also considered the possibility that Faith kept the chamomile there in case of a visitor, namely Wesley (since I don't suppose she would know he was dead) or Giles. I can't think of any other company she might get that would enjoy tea, that she might care enough about to keep some handy for. But that raises the question of why she would make a comment that would make Giles set it aside, if she kept it hoping he might visit. The easiest answer there is that while Faith wants to belong, she isn't willing to admit it, and telling Giles she had the tea hoping he might swing by would cause him to look at her with pity, which I doubt she would take well. So I don't find that one likely.

Personally, I prefer the 2nd hypothesis, because it suggests just a bit of wicked humor on Faith's part, knowing how to rattle Giles a little without truly upsetting him, and protect her stuff. I think it maybe demonstrates the healthiest state of mind for her, on the whole. Which is perhaps not the best commnetary on Faith's state of mind, but she's had a hard life, it's going to show through.

I'm feel like there are other things I should be picking up from this scene, beyond Faith's tendency towards remarks that unsettle her company. One is how quickly she shifts from a jovial attitude to a defensive one. She goes from making cracks about what happened to Sunnydale in reference to how long it's been since she's seen Giles to turning away from him in the space of one panel. Probably also worth noting that in panel 3 on that page, she and Giles both appear to be in a well-lit room, but in panel 4, it's darkened, especially around Faith. It's remarkable work by Georges Jeanty, Andy Owens, and Dave Stewart that Faith seems shrouded in darkness but without the typical tactic of actually obscuring facial features with shadows. It's more as if she's projected a cold, grey cloud around herself.

It's a fascinating sequence to me, because in panel 3 I think she's enjoying his discomfort, and so she gently chides him, trying to hide a little hurt that he hasn't bothered to check in on her. Then when he starts to tell her he's glad to see her, she brushes it off, rejects his attempt at bridging the gap. I think she regrets even making the comment in the first place. She started to banter with him, but it only served to remind her that he isn't her Watcher, never was, and she throws the walls back up immediately, returning to sarcasm and a rather pessimistic view of herself as the Slayer that's get the dirty jobs. She doesn't get to be the symbol that the rookies follow, instead she gets to clean up the messes they aren't ready for (as seen earlier in the issue when Robin asks her to go and clean out a house full of vamps that happen to be little kids, because Heaven forbid the newbies learn they'll have to slay monsters that look adorable sometimes). Hye, I didn't say it was an inaccurate view, that seems to be the role she's been assigned, but it still stinks.

So I think we can pick up a few things from the scene, though I'm sure it helps I was familiar with the character before this. She has a quick wit, she enjoys teasing people. She wants to be accepted, but isn't willing to admit that, and I think she's smarter than she lets on. At some point, she either had to read up on that use for chamomile, or someone taught it to her and she retained that knowledge for later use. Could have been her mother, though the general impression I got from the series was Momma LeHane was no Joyce Summers, but everyone has their good days.

* I'm reminded of some little skit from the end of a Simpsons' episode, with the skit revolving around Ned Flanders. it had its own theme music which would say 'Hens love roosters, geese love ganders, everyone else loves Ned Flanders', only to have Homer burst through the screen and proclaim, 'Not me!' I feel like Homer when it comes to Buffy Summers. Not so much Flanders, though. I mostly feel bad for him, being saddled with Homer as a neighbor.

** Though the Mayo Clinic's website informs me lack of sleep is not the common cause of dark circles under the eyes. They pin it on fluid which drains to that region while we sleep.

*** Well, we never see any mention of the deputy mayor in this arc, but it bothered her even back in the time when she tried to deny any wrong-doing, so I doubt that trauma has vanished. Though seriously, the deputy mayor was a dumbass. Hey, there's the Slayers, in a dark alley, in the middle of the night, looking back the way they came and breathing hard, as if they had been running for their lives. Why, I think I'll walk right up without first announcing my presence and grab one of them by the arm. I'm certain that isn't a bad idea! Hey, if Angel can be a pawn of the Powers That Be, why can't Faith be a pawn of Natural Selection?

**** Though she's less perceptive when dealing with legitimately good people, since she tends to seek ulterior motives in their actions. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to meet very many people that are legitimately good.

***** Which, hey, at least she took responsibility for her actions. Warning: long-winded rant ahead! It lasts to the end of the post, so if you're not interested, we're done for the evening. I didn't see Willow offering to go to prison for her rampage at the end of Season 6, nor did I see Buffy demanding she go to jail the way she was for Faith. Double standard on that show kills me, man. The 3 core Scoobs let each other skate on everything, compared to how they treat others. I know, I'm completely biased towards Faith, she killed 2 people, threatened to kill Willow, strangled Xander, beat up a bunch of people in Sunnydale and L.A., swapped bodies with Buffy, tried to kill Angel (really, she wanted him to kill her), tortured Wes (which I was not bothered by) and was helping the Mayor with his plan to turn Sunnydale into demon paradise (for the record, I don't count trying to poison Angel in s3, because he was a vampire that tried to destroy the world, and she is a vampire slayer, so yeah, there you go). Will's only got 1 kill, since Warren is somehow alive without skin, but toss in trying to kill Giles like she did the magic dealer, threatening to revert Dawn to a blob of energy, which would end Dawn's life as she knows it, she was choking Anya to death before Buffy stopped her, tried to kill Jonathan and Andrew multiple times, tortured Warren (I know, scumbag, he deserved it, but I can't see it being a check mark in Willow's good column), mind-wiping her girlfriend to keep her in line, which also lead to mind-wiping all her friends by accident, and oh yeah, trying to destroy the fucking planet! I'm not sure the tally is that uneven, folks. Yeah, I know, Willow went to a coven to learn how to control herself, but I figure that was a lot more pleasant than the women's correctional facility Faith was living in. Yes, Willow was grief-stricken, except when she was mind-wiping people or otherwise using magic to get her way, but I think you could make some arguments about Faith's state of mind in season 3, especially after Wes screwed the pooch by trying to haul her off to England, and she thinks she has no allies. A Watcher is supposed to defend their Slayer, you betweeded twit. No wonder I didn't mind her torturing you.

Power Corrupts, Blah, Blah

I was wondering last week whether or not housing the entirety of the Nova Force might be starting to have an adverse effect on Rich. As Rich noted when he received all the Nova Force, it's happened before, with the giant looney known as Super-Nova, who I remember seeing in an issue of Simonson's Avengers. Wow, I'm all about callbacks to Simonson's stuff these last couple days.

I'm not sure how long it took Super-Nova to go over the edge, but it doesn't to have been very long. Of course, the Worldmind wasn't helping him cope with power like it is with Rich, so we could expect Rich to resist psychological damage for a bit longer. The thing is though, it has to have been awhile since he got all that power. I don't have the issues in front of me, but Rich received the Nova Force within the first couple of weeks after the Annihilation Wave entered the universe, and he didn't rip Annihilus' innards out until over 200 days into the battle, so that's at least six months. Then he spent a couple months resting up, then there's everything that's happened in his series, which from the time he reached Earth to the time he got to Obrucen had to be around a month or so, so it's going on a year, I'd think.

And since Warlock cured Rich of the Phalanx infection, he's been more aggressive. It could just be Rich's natural hotheadedness showing through, but he seems more confrontational, more determined to not back down. When he first started fighting the Technarch, all he was doing was trying to stall it, because he recognized he was outclassed. Once he thought it had killed Tyro, he starts talking about killing it. On Obrucen, when he's not lecturing the heads of state on their lack of concern for their non-wealthy citizens, he's promising that he can save everyone, that he's not going to tolerate any murderers, and now he's going to try and make Galactus listen to his demands, somehow.

When he was on Earth, even though he didn't seem real enamored with the post-Civil War state of things, he wasn't nearly as openly contemptuous of Stark as he has been of Obrucen's leaders. He was still clearly not impressed with this better way of doing things Iron man helped bring about, but he stuck to taking shots at him veiled as comparisons to the more serious situations he'd been embroiled in. When he answered the initial Kree distress call and was met by lots of Sentries, he was willing to fall back and get help, rather than attempt to bull through the entire Kree military.

It might not be the Nova Force, though. It might be that Rich has simply seen so much death these last few years (our time), that he's not willing to accept any more. Stubborn as he often is, I could see that. He figures he has all this power, he ought to be able to do most anything he sets his mind to. Which can still be a bad thing, since it's the same basic problem that came up with Willow in Buffy Season 6 (I didn't buy that it was the magic that was bad. She liked having power because it gave her control. More power = more control.), and that nearly got the world destroyed. In fact, if it's just Rich's natural tendencies causing it, that could be worse. The effects of the Nova Force could be diminished by actually storing it somewhere else. Can't really do that with a person's stubborn streak.

I do like that Rich is stubborn, for the record. It's usually a lot of fun to see a character steadfastly refusing to back down in the face of long odds, even if they can't always win out.

It's Fairly Appropriate, Given The Time Of Year

I've been kicking this post around for at least two months, maybe even since the start of the Faith storyarc in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I just couldn't quite decide what I was wanting to say, and I guess I finally settled on talking about why I like the character so much.

I mentioned once before that one of the things I liked was that Faith enjoyed being a Slayer. By the time I started watching the series, Buffy was in her more, unpleasant, days, and she wasn't really a character I wanted to root for. Seeing the earlier episodes, where she was more cheerful, was nice, but Faith loved being the Slayer, and I like characters that see being special as something really great, even if it's just a way for them to escape their less-than-great everyday lives.

Another part of it was that Faith strikes me as decisive. Whereas I can spend ten minutes in a grocery store, trying to decide whether to buy nacho cheese chips or peanut butter crackers for snacks, Faith seemed able to come to a decision quickly. Part of that is being impulsive, but it was also the fact she tended to stick with those decisions as long as she could. After she accidentally killed the deputy mayor (I say "accidental", even though she fully intended to put the stake in his heart, but she thought he was a vampire, and he was stupid enough to walk right up behind her in a dark alley, so no big loss to their world), she decided to try and dump the body and just move on. Not a good plan, but I was impressed with her ability to make a choice quickly and go with it. Of course, that seemed to be a theme with Faith, making a less than advisable choice, then trying to see it through. She stuck with the Mayor until she went into a coma, and picked up where she left off when she woke up (which makes that dream Buffy had where she talks with Faith contradictory, but it was a dream, and they'll do that sometimes). She tried pretty damn hard to get Angel to kill her, she stayed in prison when it was painfully obvious she could escape anytime she wanted, she took the Potential Slayers out to party and loosen up, even if it got The Royal Slaying Pain-In-The-Ass (Buffy), angry that someone did something without consulting her first. And most recently she actually got to know Gigi a little, and tried to convince her not to try and kill Buffy. Like I said, these decisions didn't tend to work out, but it was impressive to me that she would choose and path and try and stick to it.

An extension of that was Faith's loyalty to people, even though they rarely justified it. Faith defended the fake Watcher against Buffy, because she believed in her, and the fake convinced Faith that she believed in her as well. Once Faith realized she'd been tricked though, she had no issues with drawing lightning bolts in her direction to help the people she'd been fighting against moments before. Eventually she felt like the Scoobies were against her (and certainly Willow and Wesley were against her, though Xander wasn't, initially), and she turned to the Mayor. And she was loyal to him, even after he got blowed up real good. Backed the wrong horse again (story of her life it seems), but the Mayor always seemed to stick by her, and Faith returned that trust with her own. That was a weird relationship those two had, do you think he'd lost a daughter sometime before he became whatever he was?

The one time that loyaltyseems to have worked out is with regards to Angel. He pulled her back from the suicide, helped her to face up to what she'd done, and when he needed her help, having lost his soul again, she was the one who nearly died capturing him, so he could get his soul back. I liked how determined she was to bring Angelus back alive so he could be resouled, even if it cost her some pain, or if she had to smack Conner around. Personally, her pummeling Conner was the part I enjoyed the most. When she returned to Sunnydale, she seemed to really try to not cause Buffy any static, even letting Buffy punch in the face without comment, though any decision she made seemed to be interpreted as Faith trying to usurp Buffy's role, and she unwillingly wound up as leader eventually.

The last thing wasn't so much anything Faith did, as much as it was something other characters weren't doing: taking responsibility for their actions. I apologize in advance, I'm going to be a bit. . . cross for the next paragraph or so. It took her awhile, but Faith did fess up to her crimes, and she did go to prison, and she stayed there, up to the point when she was needed outside. Buffy Season 6 bugged me because no one seemed to take responsibility for what they did. Willow's mind-wiping and other antics seemed to get foisted off on "bad magic" or Amy, and her punishment for killing one person, flaying another (since Warren apparently isn't dead), trying to kill several other people, and oh yeah, trying to destroy the world was. . . to go to a coven in England and learn to control herself {Here we go}. Ooh, harsh. She gets friends waiting at the airport with a sign; Faith gets remarks from Dawn about them letting a murderer stay in the house {blood pressure's rising} Xander getting mad at Anya about her drunken one-time thing with Spike, when he bailed on her at the altar about made me see cross-eyed {grinding my teeth}. I would have loved to have seen Buffy one time admit to the others that she did a lot more damage to Spike than he did to her. But no, she got to skate on all the crap she pulled, and Spike had to deal with everyone treating him like dirt. Yeah, it was swell of her to defend him when he was under the First's control, but that support might have been more useful back when he was an unsouled vampire trying to fight his nature, as opposed to Buffy's "screw Spike, then punch him and call him names until the next time you feel horny" strategy. {yelling at the ceiling while typing}

I'm OK, I'm better now. The point was, Faith recognized she did wrong, and accepted punishment for it, then tried her best to atone for her poor choices when she left prison. I really appreciated seeing that after all the stuff I ranted about in the previous paragraph. And now she's decided to try and find troubled Slayer's and keep them from going down the same roads she and Gigi did, likely to make up for the fact she wasn't able to save Gigi from herself. It's nice, you know? Warms my heart, and in a good way, not the "I'm frothing with rage" way it was happening earlier.

I'm taking the next two days off, as I'll be visiting relatives, and trying to resist the urge to kill them, I mean, sharing in the love and togetherness of the holidays. Until Wednesday, I guess.

A Person Should Enjoy Their Work

Man, this is going to be an erratic month, comics-wise. I was looking at consecutive weeks of 1, 4, 1, 4, and 1 comics. Feast or famine strikes again. This week is Aaron Stack and Sleepwalker, I mean Warbird, I mean, Greg Horn Sexy Fight Cover Comic, blast it, I mean Ms. Marvel. Hmm, I think I took that joke about one step further than I ought to have. Oh well.

Fortunately, I remembered that the next part of BKV's Faith the Vampire Slayer arc is coming out, so that makes two, at least. Good times.

Naturally, once I start thinking about Faith, I start thinking about why I always prefer her to that "other" slayer, and I think at least part of it was that Faith actually enjoyed being a Slayer. She seemed similar to how Peter Parker was in the early years of Amazing Spider-Man, where this bright kid, that gets picked on, ignored, dissed, who lives in a less than ideal situation, has an escape. He can put on the mask, and be this super-cool crime-fighter, making with the wisecracks while he saves the day. He can climb buildings and lift cars, and his biggest bully in his everyday life, is also his heroic identity's biggest fan.

Faith, from what we know of her, didn't have all that great of a life growing up, probably nobody ever made her feel exceptional, but then she becomes the Slayer, suddenly people need her to save the day. It doesn't matter that Faith doesn't see much of a future for herself, education-wise, or even see all that great of a future for herself period, because this lucky event came along and changed everything, and she gets to actually do something with her life, so she was damn glad to be doing it (and I know some of that "devil-may-care" attitude was to hide her doubts and pain, but Spidey hid insecurity behind jokes, that doesn't mean he didn't enjoy web-swinging between skyscrapers).

What I've been trying to do is figure out who in the cape and mask realm is most similar to Buffy. She struck me as someone (at least in the early season, before she was always depressed) that had a good everyday life, and being the big hero was just a drag on that. it made it hard for her to hang out with friends, spend time with the family, do all the things she'd rather be doing. She did it, because she understood the importance of the work, but at least part of her wished it was someone else's job. I'm not sure who that describes; later Spider-Man, perhaps as he got angrier?

Gender Dynamics in Fictional medium

Wow, that title sound kinda dissertationist doesn't it? Well, it's really just an example of why I shouldn't read other people's blogs before I post. See, I was all set to do a "fix New Avengers" day, which you, the kind readers would hopefully help with. Then I check out Pretty, Fuzzy Paradise and Kalinara did a post that struck a chord. She noted that if you reverse the genders of the characters in the Kyle Rayner/Jade relationship, it starts to look kind of disturbing, with "Johnny" looking like the typical abusive boyfriend. You should really read it yourself. But it brings up something that has been bothering me for a few years.

See, I'm a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel. Not those two characters mind you, I can't stand Buffy or Angel (Go Faith! Go Spike! Whoo!), but I like the shows. Which was part of what made the sixth season of Buffy so rough. Her friends bring her back from the dead, pulling her out of Heaven in the process, but leave her in her coffin, so she has to claw her way out. Understandably, Buffy's traumatized, she avoids her friends, and hangs out with Spike, and he tries to help, because he loves her, and honestly she likes him too. She just can't admit it, because he's "an evil thing". So instead she uses him sexually. The morning after their first time, Buffy tells Spike that if he tells anyone, she'll kill him. What? If a male character said that to a female character (like Angel talking to Cordellia, for example), there would be outrage. But when a women, who is the hero, and supposedly 'good', says it to the 'evil' vampire it's no big deal.

And it continues, with Buffy denying Spike actually cares for her, denying that he is actually trying to be good, when she isn't just beating the crap out of him or sexually assaulting him. There is a point where Buffy tries to initiate sexual relations and Spike says "No". Go Spike! Buffy ignores him, and the writers play goofy, silly music to make it like it's no big deal. Wait a minute, I thought that no meant no? To be fair, Spike deserves some blame for not doing the smart thing and breaking it off with Buffy, but he loves her, so like most people in abusive relationships, he wants to help her be the person he remembers. Ultimately, Spike snaps, and assaults Buffy in her bathroom. This time the writers play the assault as a serious thing, Spike's being bad, folks. See he's evil, Buffy's the victim. The double standard is jarring to say the least.

Sorry about that fanboy rage, but it's been a sensitive subject with me, especially when Season 7 seemed to be one character reminding Spike he assaulted Buffy after another, but Buffy never gets called on what she did to him. She skates away, the same way Willow skated for killing two {Edit, January 4, 2008: make that killing one, flaying another} people, even though what she did was easily as bad as what Faith did, and Faith was sitting in prison for most of that season.

Anyway, there's an essay that explains the whole thing much better than I did. http://www.allaboutspike.com/kristen.html