A GOOD POST. Because holy God, is the fandom doing it wrong with these two.
Ok, this is by no means an in-depth study, and it is possibly not even accurate, but. Based on my own (limited) observations of B/A shipping, and those who ship it as the epic true love story it is so clearly NOT, I have developed a theory of sorts. The writing in the Buffyverse is really excellent with 'show don't tell.' There are a lot of character and story developments/growth/arcs that are never explicitly stated, instead they are implied. For example, Buffy's S6 arc. She is clearly depressed, for the entirety of that season. And there are obvious signs/symptoms of depression for years before s6 and it's there still in s7. Buffy is a character that struggles with depression. We can all agree on this. Except, she never sits down with anyone and says "I think I'm depressed, and I need some help." No one else ever sits down and says "You know, I've been noticing some things, and I think Buffy may be suffering from depression." There's no Very Special Episode that deals with mental health, and neatly ties it all up in 42 minutes. ANd because it's not spelled out, it's easy for some people to miss it completely. "They never ~said Buffy was depressed!" Etc.
And the disconnect between what we see and what we're told, explains a lot about B/A shipping, imo. Because the characters view it as true!love, and they desperately cling to that notion, because both Buffy and Angel have some serious issues on their own, and they came together at a pivotal point in their lives and managed to create an impressive amount of mutual damage, and then they both clung to the idea each other in ways that aren't healthy at all. But their actions, both when they are together and when they aren't, tell a completely different story. The teenage girl with wild romantic fantasies and a savior complex, and the self-flagellating adult vampire who desperately wanted to be saved. They wanted to be an epic romantic love. They clung to that ideal, no matter how much it fucked them up. And it seems like shipping B/A is a case of taking what's being said at face value, instead of looking at what's being shown.
Wow, that was a really long rant, and I don't know if I've even said anything by the end of it. I have a lot of feelings about 'show don't tell.' It's a thing.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 08:14 pm (UTC)Ok, this is by no means an in-depth study, and it is possibly not even accurate, but. Based on my own (limited) observations of B/A shipping, and those who ship it as the epic true love story it is so clearly NOT, I have developed a theory of sorts. The writing in the Buffyverse is really excellent with 'show don't tell.' There are a lot of character and story developments/growth/arcs that are never explicitly stated, instead they are implied. For example, Buffy's S6 arc. She is clearly depressed, for the entirety of that season. And there are obvious signs/symptoms of depression for years before s6 and it's there still in s7. Buffy is a character that struggles with depression. We can all agree on this. Except, she never sits down with anyone and says "I think I'm depressed, and I need some help." No one else ever sits down and says "You know, I've been noticing some things, and I think Buffy may be suffering from depression." There's no Very Special Episode that deals with mental health, and neatly ties it all up in 42 minutes. ANd because it's not spelled out, it's easy for some people to miss it completely. "They never ~said Buffy was depressed!" Etc.
And the disconnect between what we see and what we're told, explains a lot about B/A shipping, imo. Because the characters view it as true!love, and they desperately cling to that notion, because both Buffy and Angel have some serious issues on their own, and they came together at a pivotal point in their lives and managed to create an impressive amount of mutual damage, and then they both clung to the idea each other in ways that aren't healthy at all. But their actions, both when they are together and when they aren't, tell a completely different story. The teenage girl with wild romantic fantasies and a savior complex, and the self-flagellating adult vampire who desperately wanted to be saved. They wanted to be an epic romantic love. They clung to that ideal, no matter how much it fucked them up. And it seems like shipping B/A is a case of taking what's being said at face value, instead of looking at what's being shown.
Wow, that was a really long rant, and I don't know if I've even said anything by the end of it. I have a lot of feelings about 'show don't tell.' It's a thing.