![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Can We Get New Tropes?
Apr. 10th, 2014 10:39 amSo there's this preview of the next issue of the Buffy comic.
That's okay, guys. Nothing need ever, ever change. Ever. Play the old schtick of push/pull. Dangle that carrot for shippers. Punch 'em, friend-zone 'em, and let 'em rationalize that it's all part of an arc. That it's set up because surely, SURELY there will be a reversal and at some point Buffy will acknowlege Spike as a real live boy with real live feelings and that he isn't just kinda, sorta part of her life but not actually PART OF HER LIFE. Because, hey, why let that trope go. Ever.
*sigh* They've done this too long, people. It passed the "fish or cut bait" level a decade ago. Now it's just... sad.
I want to make a song dedication to Spike:
Okay, maybe that's flippant.
How about this one?
Speaking of well-worn tropes...
I wish that Once Upon a Time had better writers. I'm not even saying that because the trope they're employing here is so obvious (it is.) I'm saying it because they are so damn clumsy sometimes.
The show is full of redemption arcs. They've got Regina-redemption going, they've got Rumple redemption going, and --despite ye-olde-classic "we're going to tease that he may have done something evil" trope (That Joss could never give up using on Spike) -- they're going redemption-y on Hook too.
Up until now, I've laughed at the way they've made Hook go transparently squirrely whenever anyone asks where he got the clue about the new curse, how he got back to the 'land without magic', where he got the potion to restore Emma's memory, etc. They've made Hook so obviously gaze-avoiding and conversation-deflecting, that it's about as obvious as the crap Whedon pulled in "Chosen" with the "will Spike betray Buffy with the First" thing.
Yeah, yeah, I see what you're doing, show.
Except...
Once can be really clumsy about these things, in as much as they tend to push things too far. If they were going to redeem Regina (they are) they never should have pushed her into the village massacre. When seeing Regina-hate by some fan, I have to concede that there's no way to defend redeeming of someone who slaughters a village. Similarly, Rumple has gone too far a number of times. (Heck, they were setting up Neal/Baelfire as true love hero, and they made him do stuff in flashback that made a lot of people incredibly resistant to him.) Of the trio of 'kinda good-guy villains', Hook has far and away the fewest crimes on his head (despite the screams of those who hate him. It's rather difficult to come up with alllll that many beyond "Pirate!").
So my reserve about this week's Hook-centric episode is not that there's any real chance of Hook 'going evil' (I've seen this fake-out trope too many times, writers. Way too many times. ...Although, I did have to LOL, after this sneak peek for the episode . *snort* He truly is a Disney Pirate. *snort* That scene would've gone way, way different on Game of Thrones. I'm just sayin' )
Still, who knows what sort of clumsy missteps writers could make along the way where, yet again, the writers push something too far, making him do something that ruins the fun.
I did LOL at someone's snarky response to the ABC media promo release for the ep:
Seriously, Ariel, what's up with your constantly losing track of your prince? You need to put a subdermal tag on the guy like you do with pets... or at least a cat bell!
That's okay, guys. Nothing need ever, ever change. Ever. Play the old schtick of push/pull. Dangle that carrot for shippers. Punch 'em, friend-zone 'em, and let 'em rationalize that it's all part of an arc. That it's set up because surely, SURELY there will be a reversal and at some point Buffy will acknowlege Spike as a real live boy with real live feelings and that he isn't just kinda, sorta part of her life but not actually PART OF HER LIFE. Because, hey, why let that trope go. Ever.
*sigh* They've done this too long, people. It passed the "fish or cut bait" level a decade ago. Now it's just... sad.
I want to make a song dedication to Spike:
Okay, maybe that's flippant.
How about this one?
Speaking of well-worn tropes...
I wish that Once Upon a Time had better writers. I'm not even saying that because the trope they're employing here is so obvious (it is.) I'm saying it because they are so damn clumsy sometimes.
The show is full of redemption arcs. They've got Regina-redemption going, they've got Rumple redemption going, and --despite ye-olde-classic "we're going to tease that he may have done something evil" trope (That Joss could never give up using on Spike) -- they're going redemption-y on Hook too.
Up until now, I've laughed at the way they've made Hook go transparently squirrely whenever anyone asks where he got the clue about the new curse, how he got back to the 'land without magic', where he got the potion to restore Emma's memory, etc. They've made Hook so obviously gaze-avoiding and conversation-deflecting, that it's about as obvious as the crap Whedon pulled in "Chosen" with the "will Spike betray Buffy with the First" thing.
Yeah, yeah, I see what you're doing, show.
Except...
Once can be really clumsy about these things, in as much as they tend to push things too far. If they were going to redeem Regina (they are) they never should have pushed her into the village massacre. When seeing Regina-hate by some fan, I have to concede that there's no way to defend redeeming of someone who slaughters a village. Similarly, Rumple has gone too far a number of times. (Heck, they were setting up Neal/Baelfire as true love hero, and they made him do stuff in flashback that made a lot of people incredibly resistant to him.) Of the trio of 'kinda good-guy villains', Hook has far and away the fewest crimes on his head (despite the screams of those who hate him. It's rather difficult to come up with alllll that many beyond "Pirate!").
So my reserve about this week's Hook-centric episode is not that there's any real chance of Hook 'going evil' (I've seen this fake-out trope too many times, writers. Way too many times. ...Although, I did have to LOL, after this sneak peek for the episode . *snort* He truly is a Disney Pirate. *snort* That scene would've gone way, way different on Game of Thrones. I'm just sayin' )
Still, who knows what sort of clumsy missteps writers could make along the way where, yet again, the writers push something too far, making him do something that ruins the fun.
I did LOL at someone's snarky response to the ABC media promo release for the ep:
Ariel returns to Storybrooke and pleads with Hook to help her find Prince Eric, who never returned to the town when the new curse was invoked. Emma agrees to let Regina teach her how to use magic so that she can help defeat Zelena, and Mary Margaret and David try to prove that they can be just as much fun as Hook is with Henry — who thinks they are boring.
Meanwhile, in Fairy Tale Land flashback, an angry Ariel confronts Hook over her missing Prince Eric, who she assumes was kidnapped and possibly killed by the pirate. But when Hook confesses that the Jolly Roger has been stolen and Eric is most likely the thief’s prisoner, Ariel unknowingly provides him with a clue as to who the culprit is on Once Upon a Time.
Seriously, Ariel, what's up with your constantly losing track of your prince? You need to put a subdermal tag on the guy like you do with pets... or at least a cat bell!
