Riba Rambles: MORE Musings of a Mental Magpie

These "More Rambles" pages were begun as a way to talk about things that don't quite belong in the regular journal, either due to length or spoiler-content. This is solely an addendum to my regular journal. Occasionally, journal entries will link here for extended commentary.

Belated Buffy thoughts

I'd been thinking a bit about Buffy: the vampire slayer and how the last two seasons played out. There were a few excellent episodes (like the musical), but on the whole, I'm not sure if we wouldn't've been better off had the show ended on the high note of the fifth season closer.

One element that left me extremely dissatisfied was the way they resolved Anya's story. I did not like the idea of her being left at the altar -- I thought it didn't fit with Xander's character and (like many problems of the last two seasons) was insufficiently foreshadowed. [Though this essay on Xander on idol_reflection takes some steps in explaining it.]

What is her character arc? She was betrayed by a lover so gave up her soul for vengeance. Then, she regained her soul and eventually learned to trust in another man... only to be betrayed by him and left at the altar.

What a stupid message for a show supposedly founded upon female empowerment.
[I also hate the whole dramatic notion of breaking up with somebody by leaving them stranded at the wedding altar. It's is incredibly tacky and stupid and implausible, far more frequent in bad tv/movie plots than real life or than it should be in tv and movies.]

I thought a better resolution for her story would've been in the build-up to the wedding, showing Xander having doubts. Given his family history (and the setup given in the musical episode), he's wary of getting married and wants to back out, but is afraid to tell Anya. He knows her history and doesn't want to hurt her or piss her off (such that she may go demonic again). Keep the focus on Xander and will he or won't he marry her. Then, at close to the last minute (but not at the wedding ceremony itself!), when he finally makes up his mind and decides to go through with it, Anya breaks it off with him. She decides she isn't ready to make the commitment.

Wouldn't that have been a much more powerful message than what they eventually did?

Talking about this with Ian, we came up with a better way of handling the Dark Willow storyline, too.

Same basic resolution, with Tara's death sending Willow over the edge. But Willow brought Buffy back to life through a ritual. What if she decided to attempt the same thing with Tara? Instead of just torturing Warren out of anger and for revenge, what if she needed human sacrifice for the spell? A life for a life; a soul for a soul. Makes Willow's actions more morally ambiguous, though Buffy would still be obligated to stop her, causing things to spiral out of control as they eventually did.

What do you think?