The Spike Strike
Nov. 14th, 2003 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stDear Fellow Spike Fans;
As some of you know, I am staging a boycott of Angel this season. Many of my fellow fans have already stopped watching. But I didn't want my boycott to work against James. I wanted it to be an expression of my unhappiness over S/B. So I sent postcards to WB and Fox and Joss explaining my position and my intent to boycott at episode 8 (next week). I have instead decided to walk at episode 5.11. Without resorting to spoilers, I strongly suggest that would be a good time for every Spike fan (even those who no longer support S/B) to walk out with me. If you must see every Spike-centric episode (and believe me I do understand the compulsion), a 5.12 walk out will work, too.
What is the point of a walk out? Well, it's just like a strike of any other kind. It shows the powers that be where the power might be. Of course, if you are happy with our story so far, by all means, ignore me. But if indeed you ARE unhappy with what has been happening, I would suggest that you flex your fanbase muscle and join me for one or two episodes. Start watching again with 5.13 if you must but let the voice of your clicker be heard by the network.
Rae
who honestly believes an organized B/A fanbase was behind the (to me) horrid ending of BtVS.
As some of you know, I am staging a boycott of Angel this season. Many of my fellow fans have already stopped watching. But I didn't want my boycott to work against James. I wanted it to be an expression of my unhappiness over S/B. So I sent postcards to WB and Fox and Joss explaining my position and my intent to boycott at episode 8 (next week). I have instead decided to walk at episode 5.11. Without resorting to spoilers, I strongly suggest that would be a good time for every Spike fan (even those who no longer support S/B) to walk out with me. If you must see every Spike-centric episode (and believe me I do understand the compulsion), a 5.12 walk out will work, too.
What is the point of a walk out? Well, it's just like a strike of any other kind. It shows the powers that be where the power might be. Of course, if you are happy with our story so far, by all means, ignore me. But if indeed you ARE unhappy with what has been happening, I would suggest that you flex your fanbase muscle and join me for one or two episodes. Start watching again with 5.13 if you must but let the voice of your clicker be heard by the network.
Rae
who honestly believes an organized B/A fanbase was behind the (to me) horrid ending of BtVS.
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You are decidedly NOT alone, pet...
Date: 2003-11-14 02:21 pm (UTC)Sisabet actually has the BEST stand...she, I think, always expected a downer ending on BtVS and with good reason.
It was true we should have looked at the track record of Mutant Enemy. Both AtS and BtVS are about misery. B/A and then W/Oz and W/Tara and finally Xander/Anya. You have to note the relentless pattern of disappointment. My only defense in believing it would end was well...it was the END of the SHOW and Buffy was the heroine of the SHOW. I knew via context that Joss intended to "set her free." I never imagined JW would end with no hope of recovering the goodwill of the fandom toward her character.
I feel Buffy was hosed and so was I...and I don't see why I should take that quietly.
Lord knows the B/A and W/T people didn't rollover and play dead like the Spuffy crowd did. When I hear people accepting it all and yet claiming to "still love S/B in their heart"...I think maybe neither WE nor Spike deserve to be treated well. Then I imagine the Spike in my head...he too is kicking over that ending. He doesn't give up on love that easily...and in his name, I write another note of protest to Joss.
Rae
who sees the ratings dropping and thinks JW does deserve the courtesy of an explanation for the loss of my viewership...he can still have my DVD buying dollars if he ends on an up note...and I bet neither SIS nor HARMONY would protest if Buffy DID love Spike.
Re: You are decidedly NOT alone, pet...
Date: 2003-11-14 04:45 pm (UTC)Thank you. I've seen some posts recently where posters have very eloquently expressed their love of Buffy as a character. And I'm jealous of them. I wanted nothing more than to end that series loving all of the characters I had cherished over the years. I will always be a Spike fan first and foremost, but that took nothing away from how much I adored Willow, Buffy, Xander, Anya, Cordelia, Wes... Hell, I even like Angel. I never wanted a good ending for Spike and S/B in any way that would take away from any of those other characters; rather, while I was angriest at what happened to S/B, what I can't forgive is the totality of what was accomplished--the killing of Anya with little fanfare; the killing of Tara as a plot device; the character assassinations of Buffy, Willow and Xander. When I started watching the series, and through the college years, I adored each of them for different reasons. Then they grew up to be people I didn't recognize, and mostly either didn't care for or didn't care about. I love Buffy, but I love the Buffy that I think would have been if the character at the end had been at all a recognizable product of what had come before. Where did she go? She wasn't, to me, even present in "Chosen", or really for the last half of Season 7. Joss set some character who vaguely looked like Buffy "free" at the end of the series--free of the capacity to value great love, free of compassion, free of depth, free of the ability to be a great friend at the same time as a fierce warrior. Sure, Spike's ending was a moment of great heroism, but that just wasn't enough for me. Ungrateful for medium-sized favors? Maybe. But every episode of the series had been, at least partly, about heroism. Heroism was the least I expected, it was the least expected of all of them, and was made extraordinary over the course of five and a half years by their relationships with eachother, by who they were and how they loved eachother while acting as heroes. Stripping Spike's ending down to one act, no matter how selfless, didn't cut it for me. Acts were never the point.
I do watch AtS this year, but certainly not for Spike, who has thus far been, again, a character walking around in Spike's jacket, interposing Britishisms, some of them admittedly hilarious, and yet, at the core, having pretty much nothing to do with the Spike I'd invested in. There's no point for me in watching AtS for Spike, because it would just leave me more bitter and more disenchanted. I watch AtS for the same reason I watched S7 of BtVS--because I liked the show before this season, on its own merits, and I keep hoping against hope that it will reward me for that loyalty. How naive of me. Sure, I sometimes get a brief jolly out of a reference to an ME in-joke, or the actors will grab me for a few scenes. But I miss Cordelia, I don't care about all the tangential Wolfram & Hart characters, Wesley's entire affect makes no sense (as others have noted) after the mind-wipe, and if that were really Spike, still interested in redemption and working for the greater good? Eve would have been a snack by now.
Anyway, sorry for venting in your LJ. I'm just bitter bitter bitter, but I'm happy for those who are happy with this season, and don't feel comfortable spoiling their fun elsewhere.