Mutant Enemy... dumber than rocks
Sep. 5th, 2003 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxSigh. Read the summary of Ep 4. Sigh.
I swear to freaking god, Mutant Enemy are dumber than rocks. I've come to the conclusion that they have no understanding of character development. They don't tell stories, they tell fables. Characters don't live. They don't accumulate experience. They exist as a set "type" or pigeonhole. Oh, Wes, might slip through but not far. I'm sure we'll just see poor Wes be Giles v2.0. But by and large ME finds a pigeonhole and leaves a character there. Their actions happen in a vacuum. It doesn't matter what they do, what matters is the neon sign ME has labelled them with. That's who they are and all they are. Ignore what they do, that doesn't play into it.
Buffy beats her lover. Is hateful to her sister. Terrorizes a social worker, but nah! That's okay. She's just in a bad place. It's not like her using someone all the way to their death makes her any less admirable. Bwad pwace!
Angel can serve up lawyer buffets, try to smother Wes, do black magic spells that get innocent bystanders killed, but don't censure him for those actions. Listen to Fury say that Angel is "unambiguous." He's pure hero.
And so we come to Spike--designated "selfish"/"loser" of the Whedonverse. They have a pigeonhole for Spike and don't think that dying to save the WORLD would allow him to crawl out of it. Don't think they'll cook up a new story. Nah. They don't do that. They tell the same fable over and over again. No accumulation of experience. Spike is still playing Intervention... THREE YEARS LATER and on another show and network.
First he's "just playing" Fred. Then, oh, villain comes along. Said villain then tortures Spike, humiliates Spike, and strips him naked while the bulk of the rest of the characters insist on repeating all of Spike's flaws and say he's worthless. Spike then is left to make a choice between his own needs and the welfare of someone else and he chooses someone else over himself.
The first time I saw this plot I cheered. I loved Intervention. I loved the step forward Spike made into selfless behavior. I loved that he showed that there is more to him than what others thought. I loved that he grew.
The thing is in Season 5 it was progression. Spike had gone from the person who did Crush and the Buffybot, to someone who would stand up against Glory and choose Dawn and Buffy's safety. It was edifying to see Spike make that choice. It was...well... glorious to see that progression of the character to go from one thing to the other. It was validation as a Spike fan.
FF three years later.
No, it no longer surprises me that Spike suffers and suffers and SUFFERS and then puts someone else's welfare above his own because, unlike the idiots at Mutant Enemy, I DO have a memory. I've SEEN Spike do this again, and again, and again now. Intervention was good because it was character progression. But where having characters insult Spike and his actions in Season 5 was tolerable because there was reason for it, worked. I didn't resent it so much. Calling Spike selfish back when he was is one thing.
BUT...
We've SEEN Spike suffer at Glory's hands in order to protect Dawn and Buffy. We've SEEN Spike stick around and help the Scoobs when Buffy was dead. I remember in Season 5 desperately wanting to see Spike save a Scoob's life-- Xander or Giles because it would mean something that Spike would do that. At that point Spike doing such a thing was NEW. Since then we've seen Spike save Giles's ungrateful ass many times. We've seen Spike save Xander so many times I've lost count. We've seen Spike stripped naked, insulted, demeaned, and freaking CRUCIFIED on BtVS and turn away from evil. We've SEEN IT ALREADY, Mutant Enemy! So now, when characters walk around insulting Spike saying he's worthless, saying he belongs in hell it doesn't PLAY any more. Not for those of us who, unlike ME, pay attention to the show. Where it was acceptable in Season 5, now it's just become demeaning to both the character and the fans. How many times can they play the same freaking plot? Can't they move on already? We know Spike can endure torture. We know he can put someone (even someone who treats him like complete crap) over himself because... hell, the reason he's a goddamned ghost in the first place is that he died for a whole freaking group of people who treated him worse than crap. But, hey, why let the memory of that intrude on the repetition of the same old, tired plot. Play it one more time that Spike suffers, gives up his own wants, and does it all for someone else. It doesn't MEAN anything anymore because we've learned by now that NO ONE will remember the next time ME pulls out this stale old plot. Spike's actions (like every other character's) happen in a vacuum. They only mean something for the moment, and then it's forgotten. The label hanging over his head never changes.
131st verse same as the first.
I'm so sick and tired of the "torture Spike, will he go evil, oh, he rises to the challenge" rinse and repeat plot because in the end he's never given credit for it. The fact that he died for the world and they are STILL playing this rotting old corpse of a plot proves it.
ME is dumber than a bag of rocks because they... and their characters... have the memories of gnats. None of them EVER learn.
I swear to freaking god, Mutant Enemy are dumber than rocks. I've come to the conclusion that they have no understanding of character development. They don't tell stories, they tell fables. Characters don't live. They don't accumulate experience. They exist as a set "type" or pigeonhole. Oh, Wes, might slip through but not far. I'm sure we'll just see poor Wes be Giles v2.0. But by and large ME finds a pigeonhole and leaves a character there. Their actions happen in a vacuum. It doesn't matter what they do, what matters is the neon sign ME has labelled them with. That's who they are and all they are. Ignore what they do, that doesn't play into it.
Buffy beats her lover. Is hateful to her sister. Terrorizes a social worker, but nah! That's okay. She's just in a bad place. It's not like her using someone all the way to their death makes her any less admirable. Bwad pwace!
Angel can serve up lawyer buffets, try to smother Wes, do black magic spells that get innocent bystanders killed, but don't censure him for those actions. Listen to Fury say that Angel is "unambiguous." He's pure hero.
And so we come to Spike--designated "selfish"/"loser" of the Whedonverse. They have a pigeonhole for Spike and don't think that dying to save the WORLD would allow him to crawl out of it. Don't think they'll cook up a new story. Nah. They don't do that. They tell the same fable over and over again. No accumulation of experience. Spike is still playing Intervention... THREE YEARS LATER and on another show and network.
First he's "just playing" Fred. Then, oh, villain comes along. Said villain then tortures Spike, humiliates Spike, and strips him naked while the bulk of the rest of the characters insist on repeating all of Spike's flaws and say he's worthless. Spike then is left to make a choice between his own needs and the welfare of someone else and he chooses someone else over himself.
The first time I saw this plot I cheered. I loved Intervention. I loved the step forward Spike made into selfless behavior. I loved that he showed that there is more to him than what others thought. I loved that he grew.
The thing is in Season 5 it was progression. Spike had gone from the person who did Crush and the Buffybot, to someone who would stand up against Glory and choose Dawn and Buffy's safety. It was edifying to see Spike make that choice. It was...well... glorious to see that progression of the character to go from one thing to the other. It was validation as a Spike fan.
FF three years later.
No, it no longer surprises me that Spike suffers and suffers and SUFFERS and then puts someone else's welfare above his own because, unlike the idiots at Mutant Enemy, I DO have a memory. I've SEEN Spike do this again, and again, and again now. Intervention was good because it was character progression. But where having characters insult Spike and his actions in Season 5 was tolerable because there was reason for it, worked. I didn't resent it so much. Calling Spike selfish back when he was is one thing.
BUT...
We've SEEN Spike suffer at Glory's hands in order to protect Dawn and Buffy. We've SEEN Spike stick around and help the Scoobs when Buffy was dead. I remember in Season 5 desperately wanting to see Spike save a Scoob's life-- Xander or Giles because it would mean something that Spike would do that. At that point Spike doing such a thing was NEW. Since then we've seen Spike save Giles's ungrateful ass many times. We've seen Spike save Xander so many times I've lost count. We've seen Spike stripped naked, insulted, demeaned, and freaking CRUCIFIED on BtVS and turn away from evil. We've SEEN IT ALREADY, Mutant Enemy! So now, when characters walk around insulting Spike saying he's worthless, saying he belongs in hell it doesn't PLAY any more. Not for those of us who, unlike ME, pay attention to the show. Where it was acceptable in Season 5, now it's just become demeaning to both the character and the fans. How many times can they play the same freaking plot? Can't they move on already? We know Spike can endure torture. We know he can put someone (even someone who treats him like complete crap) over himself because... hell, the reason he's a goddamned ghost in the first place is that he died for a whole freaking group of people who treated him worse than crap. But, hey, why let the memory of that intrude on the repetition of the same old, tired plot. Play it one more time that Spike suffers, gives up his own wants, and does it all for someone else. It doesn't MEAN anything anymore because we've learned by now that NO ONE will remember the next time ME pulls out this stale old plot. Spike's actions (like every other character's) happen in a vacuum. They only mean something for the moment, and then it's forgotten. The label hanging over his head never changes.
131st verse same as the first.
I'm so sick and tired of the "torture Spike, will he go evil, oh, he rises to the challenge" rinse and repeat plot because in the end he's never given credit for it. The fact that he died for the world and they are STILL playing this rotting old corpse of a plot proves it.
ME is dumber than a bag of rocks because they... and their characters... have the memories of gnats. None of them EVER learn.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-06 04:40 am (UTC)Uh. Why does it seem rather worse that Spike is apparently going to have to solve this incorporeality (is that a word, by the way?) himself rather than being able to rely on any help?
The only thing that can pull this out of the dumpster is if the Fang Gang has the epiphany that the Scooby Gang never had and starts treating Spike better after this incident. After all, he saved Fred's damn life at the expense of his own.
The other thing that worries me is the notion that Pavayne is using 'willpower'. So the solution to Spike's problem is just going to be 'wanting it bad enough?' (it mean being corporeal). And from Spike's comment, it sounds as if Pavayne wasn't just pushing those other spirits into hell after tormenting them; Pavayne was also avoiding hell by willpower. So I guess Spike's not really out of the woods the way I thought he was originally; it sounds as if hell is still waiting and he could fall into it. (Originally I thought that hell was only a threat because of Pavayne).
Putting that together with James's comment that the show was going to hell, I think we can assume that eventually Spike is going to get sucked into hell (perhaps that's his separate storyline) and the Fang Gang decides to come after him? Maybe that will finally be the turning point. But a hell of a lot of the season will be gone by then, won't it?
Also, don't you just love the articulation of the fact that Angel prefers Spike as incorporeal because it keeps him from going to Buffy? I guess ME is hoping that by the time they solve the incorporeal thing and give Spike a trip to hell, they can get Buffy back and set up a whole different type of hell for Spike. My gut is starting to tell me that when she shows up, she'll have a new 'Mr. Right Now With Potential for More' which will rule out Spike entirely but still leave the possibility open for Angel, 'Mr. Someday if Ever'. And of course we'll probably get some twist that Fred will have fallen for Spike by then, she'll get her heart bruised and turn to, say, Knox, which will in turn hurt Spike, who ultimately will probably come to the realization that he's over Buffy and really lurves Fred. I can see ME being attracted to all this soap-operaish drama.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-07 09:21 am (UTC)Dear Ro,
You expect this because you know M.E.. You know they retreated to the trite and predictable a long time ago. :(
no subject
Date: 2003-09-08 04:34 am (UTC)A lot will depend on how they treat him after this. If they're still being complete shits to him, well- I'll almost be inclined to think that ME doesn't WANT us to like them.