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dipenatesI'm writing (incredibly slowly) a post-Chosen Riley fic, and watched Dead Things again for reference. Of course, watching a single episode of Buffy is almost impossible, so I ended up watching through to Entropy. I always remember Entropy as a series of plot points; mini-explosions throwing some things together and blowing others apart, but there are some beautiful (and enraging) moments, which gave me some thoughts.
It's not you, it's me
It's in this episode that it becomes evident that, despite some tap-dancing and hand-waving, the show does not intend to satisfactorily explain Xander's decision to dump Anya on their wedding day.
Obsessed, as I am, with family dysfunction and origin stories, I might have been tempted to lean more heavily on Xander wigging out because he grew up in a house chock full of toxic relationships and emotional (at least) abuse. Or, the show could have used Anya's point-of-view to critique marriage and relationships, and reveal that after a lifetime of smiting errant suitors / husbands / boyfriends, Xander was afraid of meeting her expectations.
What we get instead is a confused mish-mash of Xander wanting a relationship but not being ready for marriage, and not letting Anya know about this soon enough. It feels almost like it's tapping in to that 'men are afraid of commitment' trope, which is a very conventional place for the show to go, as well as seeming a little bit incongruous within their relationship's arc.
Your friends in Lynchburg want you to enjoy this product responsibly
Not an original observation, I'm sure, but are we seriously supposed to believe that Giles is a Jack Daniels fan? Had I been responsible for the decision about which bottle Anya would pull out from under the register, I would have gone for a solid single malt, or one of those local spirits that you try on holiday and buy at the airport in a fit of enthusiasm, only for it to sit in the drinks cabinet. I'm sure that Anya and Spike could have got nicely drunk on Becherovka, or cherry schnapps.
My moment of squee
I have all the love in the world for the nod that Spike gives Anya after they have sex. As much as Spike isn't about the chivalry (I mean this to be a compliment), there is something almost courtly about it. It's not quite "you're a hell of a woman", but it's in the ballpark.
Bonus moment of squee: "Can you just be kissing me now?"
No vampire's gonna love my woma(/e)n
Xander is a total ass in this episode.
Most people are, of course, capable of extravagant meanness when confronting exes, and this applies even when the dumper is talking to the dumpee. Previous seasons have also amply demonstrated that Xander can get his self-righteous windbag on with the best of them (Into the Woods, anyone?). I think, though, that slut-shaming Anya (and Buffy) is a low point for him.
He maintains in Seeing Red that Spike's soullessness is the root of the problem he has with Buffy's relationship with him, but Buffy makes the excellent point that he was happy to slay with Spike while she was dead, and happy for him to take care of Dawn. The implication that it's sexytimes with Spike that blows Xander's mind is clear, and although Xander has form with finding his female friends' sexuality problematic, this level of hostility is a bit of a throwback to the days of Angel.
It's still all about him as we move through the rest of the narrative arc. ("You wanted me to feel something? Congratulations, it worked. I look at you and I feel sick. 'Cause you had sex with that." -Entropy "I know why Anya--. I understand, I do. But you-- All those times I told Spike to get lost. That he didn't have a chance with a girl like you." -Seeing Red) When Buffy says, in Seeing Red, "What I do with my personal life is none of your business", I kind of wish she had said "What I do with my vagina is none of your business", because I think it's both more true, and more salient.
It's not you, it's me
It's in this episode that it becomes evident that, despite some tap-dancing and hand-waving, the show does not intend to satisfactorily explain Xander's decision to dump Anya on their wedding day.
Obsessed, as I am, with family dysfunction and origin stories, I might have been tempted to lean more heavily on Xander wigging out because he grew up in a house chock full of toxic relationships and emotional (at least) abuse. Or, the show could have used Anya's point-of-view to critique marriage and relationships, and reveal that after a lifetime of smiting errant suitors / husbands / boyfriends, Xander was afraid of meeting her expectations.
What we get instead is a confused mish-mash of Xander wanting a relationship but not being ready for marriage, and not letting Anya know about this soon enough. It feels almost like it's tapping in to that 'men are afraid of commitment' trope, which is a very conventional place for the show to go, as well as seeming a little bit incongruous within their relationship's arc.
Your friends in Lynchburg want you to enjoy this product responsibly
Not an original observation, I'm sure, but are we seriously supposed to believe that Giles is a Jack Daniels fan? Had I been responsible for the decision about which bottle Anya would pull out from under the register, I would have gone for a solid single malt, or one of those local spirits that you try on holiday and buy at the airport in a fit of enthusiasm, only for it to sit in the drinks cabinet. I'm sure that Anya and Spike could have got nicely drunk on Becherovka, or cherry schnapps.
My moment of squee
I have all the love in the world for the nod that Spike gives Anya after they have sex. As much as Spike isn't about the chivalry (I mean this to be a compliment), there is something almost courtly about it. It's not quite "you're a hell of a woman", but it's in the ballpark.
Bonus moment of squee: "Can you just be kissing me now?"
No vampire's gonna love my woma(/e)n
Xander is a total ass in this episode.
Most people are, of course, capable of extravagant meanness when confronting exes, and this applies even when the dumper is talking to the dumpee. Previous seasons have also amply demonstrated that Xander can get his self-righteous windbag on with the best of them (Into the Woods, anyone?). I think, though, that slut-shaming Anya (and Buffy) is a low point for him.
He maintains in Seeing Red that Spike's soullessness is the root of the problem he has with Buffy's relationship with him, but Buffy makes the excellent point that he was happy to slay with Spike while she was dead, and happy for him to take care of Dawn. The implication that it's sexytimes with Spike that blows Xander's mind is clear, and although Xander has form with finding his female friends' sexuality problematic, this level of hostility is a bit of a throwback to the days of Angel.
It's still all about him as we move through the rest of the narrative arc. ("You wanted me to feel something? Congratulations, it worked. I look at you and I feel sick. 'Cause you had sex with that." -Entropy "I know why Anya--. I understand, I do. But you-- All those times I told Spike to get lost. That he didn't have a chance with a girl like you." -Seeing Red) When Buffy says, in Seeing Red, "What I do with my personal life is none of your business", I kind of wish she had said "What I do with my vagina is none of your business", because I think it's both more true, and more salient.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 04:55 pm (UTC)"What I do with my vagina is none of your business",
LOL! Awesome line, don't think they'll ever use it. At least not with Buffy.
I think the problem is Spike's vampireness. And Spike himself. I don't think Xander would've reacted as hostile if the guy Anya and Buffy slept with was a human. Actually, I don't think he'll be hostile at all, just upset with Anya.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 05:42 pm (UTC)There's so much to explore and yet it either gets swept under a run or tossed aside or never be mentioned again. They start something with him and then never finish it or deal with it properly.
Word. Although I wonder if they really knew what they were doing with Anya and Xander's breakup? I understand the dramatic motivation for breaking up established couples, but it just seems so unsatisfactory after the wedding build-up and Anya's epiphany about weddings vs marriages, (which seemed a little bit patronising to her character to me, because she's been a keen observer of relationships for a millennium) that there was no real reason for the split.
I don't think Xander would've reacted as hostile if the guy Anya and Buffy slept with was a human. Actually, I don't think he'll be hostile at all, just upset with Anya.
You could be right, and I get that he doesn't like Spike. It's just that perceiving an insult in an enemy sleeping with a woman you are friends with is totally mediaeval, and I like to think Xander has moved a bit beyond the knee-jerk misogynistic impulse by S6.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 06:05 pm (UTC)I think it has more to do with Xander's depression -he hurt the woman he loved, started drinking, his life was a mess, Anya wouldn't take him back, and then he just witnessed Anya, his everything, sleeping with Spike. Seeing it is worse than hearing about it.
After that blow, I can understand not reacting well to another -Buffy sleeping with Spike.
Compare his reaction here to the one in Intervention. Xander was even more understanding to Buffy sleeping with Spike than Tara. Why the difference in reactions? Check Xander's state of mind in S5: he's got a beautiful girlfriend, a new job he's good at with promotions and raises, and a new, big, perfect apartment. He was in a good place in his life. No wonder he was able to take the news about Buffy sleeping with Spike with an open-mind.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 07:32 pm (UTC)You're so right about the difference in reactions between Entropy and Intervention, and it's really interesting to compare the two. (And even to compare the reactions to Buffy and Spike in Something Blue.)
I do agree that Xander is in a much better space in S5, and that seeing your ex sleeping with one of your enemies isn't likely to be pleasant. I can even (just about) imagine a kind of "et tu, Brutus!" reaction to Buffy, while they're all standing outside the Magic Shop.
All that being said, though, I think that there's something really inappropriate about the language he uses, and I don't think it's completely in character. You can't say that someone is too disgusting to have sex with, without implying that it's disgusting to have sex with them and Xander slut-shaming isn't where he is in S6. I think the writers did him a disservice.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 08:14 pm (UTC)I'm not sure it's out of character. Xander says a lot of inappropriate things when he's angry -High School seasons come to mind. Something he learned from home obviously. He does become a lot quieter and understanding by S7 though.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 08:24 pm (UTC)Yes, I guess this is my point. It strikes me as incongruous in S6 Xander. However, it's a very subtle and subjective objection I have to the way he was written in those few scenes, and the mileage of others may vary!
It was very good to get your thoughts on it. :)