Meme: December 2
Dec. 2nd, 2013 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalStill taking requests, plenty of days open for topics, so go nuts.
Today's topic comes fromfrayadjacent:
What's your favorite season of Buffy, and why?
Season 5. Why? Did you not see yesterday's post on Buffy's fabulous hair? LOL
For serious, though, I love season 5 for several reasons:
1. So many great episodes. "Fool For Love" and "The Body," obviously, works of freakin' art. "Checkpoint," because this:
"Intervention" is one of my FAVORITES, the entire Buffybot plot is hysterical. "The Gift" is gorgeous and makes me cry all the time. To be fair, every season has its stand-out episodes, but season 5 seems to be, on the whole, more consistently good? Like, I cannot name a truly bad episode. There are episodes I don't like (ahem, "Into the Woods"), but that's because I hate how Riley is a douchecanoe and the blame for the break-up gets put entirely on Buffy, but at least the premise of the episode is not inherently stupid and cringeworthy, like some of the other seasons' clunkers (especially the early seasons).
2. The Spuffy of it. Season 5 is my favorite phase of Buffy and Spike's relationship. Yes, the sex in season 6 is hot and dirtybadwrong, and the quiet, celibate devotion in season 7 is moving and heartbreakingly unfinished, but man, season 5 has such a great arc. It's where Spike goes from sometimes evil nuisance to actual trusted member of the team. I love the weird little ups and downs - the power plays in FFL, Buffy's willingness to leave her family under his protection, Spike's confession and Buffy's appalled reaction in "Crush," the "Intervention" kiss, the RV shenanigans, "You treat me like a man..."
3. Dawn Summers. I love this girl, haters to the left.
Her existence as the Key fascinates me, in ways the series itself only scratched the surface of. I love her relationship with Buffy, and how it changes Buffy so profoundly, becoming an older sister. I also love that the theme of the season is "family" and how Dawn fits into that. Also, Spike/Dawn is the best brOTP ever. THE BEST.
4. The final arc. So, true story: I watched the entire series of Buffy and Angel during one semester of college (my senior year), borrowing the DVDs from one of my roommates. I happened to hit season 5 right before spring break, so I took the last couple discs home with me to watch, figuring that would hold me over until I got back to school. And then I watched them all on the first day of break. And then I rewatched them many times over the course of that week, because I could not get enough, but I didn't have season 6. And that last handful of episodes lends itself to binging, the way the show goes whole-hog into the serialized storytelling and doesn't even try to do MOTW episodes, and it's sort of impossible for me to watch without this sense of breathlessly charging toward the finale.
Today's topic comes from
frayadjacent:What's your favorite season of Buffy, and why?
Season 5. Why? Did you not see yesterday's post on Buffy's fabulous hair? LOL
For serious, though, I love season 5 for several reasons:
1. So many great episodes. "Fool For Love" and "The Body," obviously, works of freakin' art. "Checkpoint," because this:
"Intervention" is one of my FAVORITES, the entire Buffybot plot is hysterical. "The Gift" is gorgeous and makes me cry all the time. To be fair, every season has its stand-out episodes, but season 5 seems to be, on the whole, more consistently good? Like, I cannot name a truly bad episode. There are episodes I don't like (ahem, "Into the Woods"), but that's because I hate how Riley is a douchecanoe and the blame for the break-up gets put entirely on Buffy, but at least the premise of the episode is not inherently stupid and cringeworthy, like some of the other seasons' clunkers (especially the early seasons).
2. The Spuffy of it. Season 5 is my favorite phase of Buffy and Spike's relationship. Yes, the sex in season 6 is hot and dirtybadwrong, and the quiet, celibate devotion in season 7 is moving and heartbreakingly unfinished, but man, season 5 has such a great arc. It's where Spike goes from sometimes evil nuisance to actual trusted member of the team. I love the weird little ups and downs - the power plays in FFL, Buffy's willingness to leave her family under his protection, Spike's confession and Buffy's appalled reaction in "Crush," the "Intervention" kiss, the RV shenanigans, "You treat me like a man..."
3. Dawn Summers. I love this girl, haters to the left.
Her existence as the Key fascinates me, in ways the series itself only scratched the surface of. I love her relationship with Buffy, and how it changes Buffy so profoundly, becoming an older sister. I also love that the theme of the season is "family" and how Dawn fits into that. Also, Spike/Dawn is the best brOTP ever. THE BEST.
4. The final arc. So, true story: I watched the entire series of Buffy and Angel during one semester of college (my senior year), borrowing the DVDs from one of my roommates. I happened to hit season 5 right before spring break, so I took the last couple discs home with me to watch, figuring that would hold me over until I got back to school. And then I watched them all on the first day of break. And then I rewatched them many times over the course of that week, because I could not get enough, but I didn't have season 6. And that last handful of episodes lends itself to binging, the way the show goes whole-hog into the serialized storytelling and doesn't even try to do MOTW episodes, and it's sort of impossible for me to watch without this sense of breathlessly charging toward the finale.
no subject
Date: Dec. 9th, 2013 10:30 pm (UTC)Yesssss, exactly. And the idea of memory and identity, and if we take away all the "not real" memories, is Dawn still Dawn?