watervole | More Buffy

Watching even more Buffy as I recover from this bug (pretty much over the really bad infectious part, still in the feeling very floppy and having no strength part)

First time around I thought Angel was fantastic and Riley was a waste of space.

This time (several years later) I think Angel is a self-pitying, lacking in emotional range, bore.

Riley is gorgeous, is actually able to smile, has depths of character that make Angel look shallow and is the far more interesting character.

I still don't like Faith (but I do like the way her relationship with the Mayor was written).

Anya has grown on me. She'll probably never be a favourite, but she's reasonably well-written.

I like both Oz and Tara (didn't care much for either of them first time around). Now, I care what happens to both of them.

I think a lot of the change is in myself. When I was younger, I used to watch all shows with a 'one true pairing' mindset. Anyone who came in after the first love interest that I really related to was obviously a bad guy/gal and really bad for my favourite character.

Nowadays, I'm a lot more open-minded. People develop and move on. The first major love is not necessarily the right one for a person. It's also genuinely possible for someone to have deep feelings for more than one person - in such cases, being forced to choose is a nightmare. Willow cares deeply for both Oz and Tara - which is why they both have the ability to hurt her.

Mind you, I'm not one hundred percent open-minded. When it comes to Stargate, Sam and Jack belong together (unless either of them fancies a fling with Maybourne, of course...)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm shipping neutral when it comes to Buffy, and hence liked Angel and Riley both. I will say that Angel gained a lot on his own show, which isn't surprising, because on BTVS he was limited to the "mysterious love interest" role and on AtS he was the main character with a lot of relationships of a non-romantic nature (and a deadpan humour that was quite endearing). Back to Riley: you can tell he was originally supposed to be the Superman to Angel's Batman from Buffy's pov, though the concept changed somewhat in season 5 (as Riley became more and more insecure at a time when Buffy because of her mother's illness and the presence of Dawn had less and less time for him). Still, of her three boyfriends Riley was probably the "healthiest".

When I was younger, I used to watch all shows with a 'one true pairing' mindset.
See, that's a mindset I don't comprehend very well. Can you explain it to me?

I'm not saying I don't believe in true love and faithfulness (I have too many good examples in my family and extended family). I just think that, for a given person, there exists more than one person who has the potential to be their soulmate, but "soulmate"-ness is something in potential, and they need to grow together in order for the soulmate-ness to happen. Which means that if, for whatever reason, they lose their soulmate, that doesn't mean that they can't have another soulmate if they find another Potential Soulmate.
I guess part of the reason I think this way is that I do have an example of this in my extended family; one of my uncles married, had kids, and then his wife died. Then he married again (and had another kid); and I wouldn't say that he loved his first wife more than his second, or that he loved his second wife more than his first.

I think 'one true pairing' has different origins for different people.

Part of it is the belief (probably mainly among the young) that there really is idealised love at first sight.

part of it derives from the 'happily ever after' concept inherent in traditional story telling.

Part of it relates to the amount of emotional investment that people make in characters. To have a favourite character written out of a show is to lose that investment - and to make you resent any replacement.

Yes, I always thought Riley got a raw deal from fandom simply by not being Angel.

At the moment, we're (re-)watching "Northern Exposure", having had selected episodes on VHS and now having seen the full first series. I'm struck by how annoying Fleischmann is - last time round I thought he was the hero! And I had barely noticed all the wonderful ways they use music in the show.

Well, speaking as somebody who never much liked Angel, the problem with Riley in my segment of fandom is that he was forced down our throats--given too much screentime too quickly, at the expense of characters we loved and wanted to watch. If they'd gone at him more gradually, I really do think he'd have been more accepted.

It may be a memory thing. On the rewatch, I found myself surprised by how slowly Riley was introduced. (I'd completely forgotten the Parker mini-arc)

I'm fairly certain one of Buffy's super powers is "turning otherwise fairly interesting guys into heaps of whine and angst". It's a recurring tendency in all her long-term relationships, except with Spike who does get it a little, but seems to recover quickly.

Angel is the most annoying thing! Well, he's better when he's EVIL but... well. Annoying and shallow and ugh.

I don't like Riley. But then I think that's because Spike is so much cooler :-)

(I am in no way swayed by having spent last weekend playing Drusila in a S2 readthrough *grin*)

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