I mean "formative" in the sense that the Buffyverse was my first fandom and I'd never before seen such incorrect shipping in my life.
LMAO. Bless.
I do think the show(s) had a tendency to romanticize the story (... a lot), but in some ways I also think that was a somewhat necessary part of the story -- it's the epitome of that heady, destructive (understatement) first love, the kind you feel like you "can't breathe" without, the kind that scars you for life.
True. And I think BtVS walks a fine line between romanticizing the story while also problematizing it? Most shows tend to tip too far one way or the other - romanticizing gross relationships is easy to find, but I also notice dysfunctional ships that are SO dysfunctional that we as viewers can't understand what the one character possibly sees in the other. (I feel this way a lot with S/E. Like, emotionally, I could not wrap my head around it when Elena kept fighting for Stefan in S3, even though I intellectually get why she was so determined to make it work.) But with Buffy and Angel, even though I never really shipped it, I could still appreciate the ~emotional moments like the "can't breathe" scene. I always got why Buffy would be all in with this relationship and how she wouldn't see the red flags.
no subject
LMAO. Bless.
I do think the show(s) had a tendency to romanticize the story (... a lot), but in some ways I also think that was a somewhat necessary part of the story -- it's the epitome of that heady, destructive (understatement) first love, the kind you feel like you "can't breathe" without, the kind that scars you for life.
True. And I think BtVS walks a fine line between romanticizing the story while also problematizing it? Most shows tend to tip too far one way or the other - romanticizing gross relationships is easy to find, but I also notice dysfunctional ships that are SO dysfunctional that we as viewers can't understand what the one character possibly sees in the other. (I feel this way a lot with S/E. Like, emotionally, I could not wrap my head around it when Elena kept fighting for Stefan in S3, even though I intellectually get why she was so determined to make it work.) But with Buffy and Angel, even though I never really shipped it, I could still appreciate the ~emotional moments like the "can't breathe" scene. I always got why Buffy would be all in with this relationship and how she wouldn't see the red flags.