Reading some online comments this week made me send this tweet: Everyone's a martyr in their own way, in their own not that martyric way. #captainhammerrevisedfortheinternet
It just occurred to me in a clearer way than normal that the martyr complex I've noted in annoyance in people is universal and in me as well. Not that I didn't know it, but it was really -- well, like I said, clear to me at that point. Someone was saying she was annoyed that Buffy's faults were overlooked and she was put on a pedestal by everyone, whereas the poster felt the need to counterbalance that by always pointing out where she did less than stellar things. The funny thing is I feel EXACTLY the opposite. I always see Buffy HATORZ online or off, talking about how they love the show but hate the character. Or if not hate, don't like very much, put low in their list of favorites. They're always calling her selfish and blaming her for more things even than all the things she blames herself for, and I always feel like those of us who like her are in the minority and should speak up. Exactly the opposite.
And I realized that that's probably true of things like the Season 6 debate. To me, I can't bring up liking the season (and I'm terrified to even mention Marti Noxon online for fear of what comments would ensue) without the people who hate it jumping on to say how it sucks. I've often thought that you could have a forum titled Discussion of Buffy Season Six for Those Who Love It and still those who hate it would have to state their case over and over on it. So it's entirely possible that the haters of the season feel like those nuts who love it never shut up about how great it is and would even be on an Anti forum and...You get the drift.
So the reason (I've always felt like) American Christians always act as though they're martyrs, standing proudly as representatives of a group that's socially victimized and derided (even though you can't get through a day in the U.S. without something about Christianity being right in your face) is not because Christians are just deluded or hypocritical, it's because of this prevalent strain in people of getting off on being the only one who sees the light. Or part of the select group that sees the light in a sea of obtuseness and misunderstandings. Like it's a byproduct of the group instinct, or the us against them, or a result of righteousness being linked to oppression.
I have to wonder if it's more of an American thing than a general one. Yet then there's the internet. Full of people standing up for their minority view in the face of the oppression of the majority, who actually consist of those you notice that could be just some of the few people that actually disagree with you. We may seek news and opinions written by those we agree with, but what we really notice, what really sticks with us and just strikes the deepest into our hearts and minds is those who disagree with us. And it doesn't take many of them. And then we feel alone, under attack from these different opinions that suddenly seem to be all over. Even if they're really not. Is it a function of individualism, part of the idea that we're all different? Or is it a reaction against that? Rebellion or an unusual form of conformity?
Mea culpa, too.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Buffy Season 8 - Issue #8 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL
No Future for You part 3.
Starts out with Faith thinking about Buffy as Gigi lets her in on the master plan. "It's always about her." Gigi's been studying Buffy for months in order to prepare to assassinate her. She believes that Buffy is a misguided monarch who's been holding the new slayers back for too long (Have I mentioned yet that Lady Genevieve is nuts?) She's kind of a stereotypical aristocrat who doesn't want to be serfs to the larger world but to rule over the masses. Not too different from Faith's ideology in season 3, despite them coming from vastly different places. Each believes that slayers are superior and deserve special rights. And Gigi adds to that the idea of empire, that she should run the other slayers and the world. Faith has learned better than that at this point, she knows where that thinking leads, but she has to feel some kinship born of understanding where Gigi's coming from.
As soon as Buffy's picture and name entered the picture, Faith got depressed. I do think they made some peace with each other in season 7, but Faith's been feeling ever more the outsider since the Hellmouth collapsed, and I think it's throwing her back into her insecurities regarding Buffy. She's also resentful of Giles again, assuming he lied to her about her mission being for the world when in fact it's about saving HIS slayer.
Roden comes in briefly to try and get Gigi to strategize. She's more concerned about her new buddy, Hope, and finally being able to share her plans for death and domination with someone she immediately views as an equal.
Meanwhile, Giles is outside, still trying to contact Faith, and hanging out with a dwarf(?) named Trafalgar who's attempting to break down Roden's barrier with the Hammer of Hamner. Not working. He suggests to Giles that maybe he's not hearing from Faith because she's switched sides. (And he doesn't even know Faith).
Cut to Faith and Gigi in a huge bubble bath. And let the fan fic commence. Done now? Okay then. Faith is enjoying the luxuries, and girl could definitely use some luxury in her life. The girls bond over music and slayer nightmares that Gigi calls night terrors. She says Roden claims Buffy's death will end them. I wonder if the slayer nightmares are more intense now with all the new slayers? I wonder if some of them are not only of the past lineage, but of the present battles. Are they synced up like periods?
Anyway, "Hope" tries to warn Gigi that Roden might not be trustworthy, alluding to the Mayor without talking directly about him. She wants to save this girl who seems so like herself. Angel's influence maybe? Remember when Angel tried to hard to save Darla? He never accepted he could ever balance his own scales, but he somehow felt if he could save the woman who sired his evil self, it would make a difference somehow. Not the same sitch with Faith, but it does remind me of that, and of Angel's attempts to help Faith in Buffy S3 too. You see someone making the mistakes you made in the past and think if you can save this one, maybe you can save yourself.
And then we're back in Scotland with Willow and Buffy. Willow's helping with the hi-tech defenses and asking a seemingly casual question of how they can afford this stuff. Buffy says they have anonymous donors with deep pockets. Then Will again brings up the question of what they're going to do if attacked by humans, moral dilemma-wise. "Not killing humans is what separates us from the bad guys" is Willow's position, while Buffy maintains that "not being bad" is the difference. Unfortunately, the Slayer's belief in the rightness of her cause is kind of a problem these days when there's so many of them. Buffy doesn't know what to do about Voll's army yet. But then she fwoomps out of there...
...and to Lady Genevieve's place, courtesy of Roden's magic. Faith is looking on and freaking out, not having known what was going down. Gigi's kitted up for battle, thinking cake walk. Buffy's barfing up her chicken caesar wrap. Then the fight is on.
They fight and banter, and Buffy finds out Gigi has been killing other slayers. She's about to finish Gigi off when Faith jumps in. They go out through a window together (again) and land in a swimming pool. Buffy is not in a good mood. She immediately and unfairly I think assumes Faith is behind the whole thing. I know you've been through a teleport and an attempted assassination, B, but think it through. She just figures Faith is trying to start up a rival group of slayers under her leadership, and she should know better.
So they fight in the pool, even though Faith starts by trying to talk. Tells her about Giles' undercover mission, which is not going to go over well. It's funny, Buffy's first reaction is to believe the worst of Faith and disbelieve that Giles would leave her out of the loop on something, which is the opposite of where they ended up in season 7. Faith freaks out at being called a liar and starts choking Buffy and holding her underwater, reminiscent of Buffy's season 3 dream in Consequences. Faith is still stuck in the past too, thinking "whenever she's around, you're the villain" and "never forget how deep she cut you." But she comes out of it and let's Buffy go.
And as they finally have a moment where they seem to be able to start talking things through, Willow pulls Buffy back to Scotland. Damn it! After barfing again, Buffy grimly says, "Get me Giles."
Back at the manor, Faith is tired, depressed and not all that happy about living. Luckily? Gigi has a solution for that. The issue ends with Gigi saying something to Faith that resonates for Faith and Buffy as well. "I thought you were my friend."
Starts out with Faith thinking about Buffy as Gigi lets her in on the master plan. "It's always about her." Gigi's been studying Buffy for months in order to prepare to assassinate her. She believes that Buffy is a misguided monarch who's been holding the new slayers back for too long (Have I mentioned yet that Lady Genevieve is nuts?) She's kind of a stereotypical aristocrat who doesn't want to be serfs to the larger world but to rule over the masses. Not too different from Faith's ideology in season 3, despite them coming from vastly different places. Each believes that slayers are superior and deserve special rights. And Gigi adds to that the idea of empire, that she should run the other slayers and the world. Faith has learned better than that at this point, she knows where that thinking leads, but she has to feel some kinship born of understanding where Gigi's coming from.
As soon as Buffy's picture and name entered the picture, Faith got depressed. I do think they made some peace with each other in season 7, but Faith's been feeling ever more the outsider since the Hellmouth collapsed, and I think it's throwing her back into her insecurities regarding Buffy. She's also resentful of Giles again, assuming he lied to her about her mission being for the world when in fact it's about saving HIS slayer.
Roden comes in briefly to try and get Gigi to strategize. She's more concerned about her new buddy, Hope, and finally being able to share her plans for death and domination with someone she immediately views as an equal.
Meanwhile, Giles is outside, still trying to contact Faith, and hanging out with a dwarf(?) named Trafalgar who's attempting to break down Roden's barrier with the Hammer of Hamner. Not working. He suggests to Giles that maybe he's not hearing from Faith because she's switched sides. (And he doesn't even know Faith).
Cut to Faith and Gigi in a huge bubble bath. And let the fan fic commence. Done now? Okay then. Faith is enjoying the luxuries, and girl could definitely use some luxury in her life. The girls bond over music and slayer nightmares that Gigi calls night terrors. She says Roden claims Buffy's death will end them. I wonder if the slayer nightmares are more intense now with all the new slayers? I wonder if some of them are not only of the past lineage, but of the present battles. Are they synced up like periods?
Anyway, "Hope" tries to warn Gigi that Roden might not be trustworthy, alluding to the Mayor without talking directly about him. She wants to save this girl who seems so like herself. Angel's influence maybe? Remember when Angel tried to hard to save Darla? He never accepted he could ever balance his own scales, but he somehow felt if he could save the woman who sired his evil self, it would make a difference somehow. Not the same sitch with Faith, but it does remind me of that, and of Angel's attempts to help Faith in Buffy S3 too. You see someone making the mistakes you made in the past and think if you can save this one, maybe you can save yourself.
And then we're back in Scotland with Willow and Buffy. Willow's helping with the hi-tech defenses and asking a seemingly casual question of how they can afford this stuff. Buffy says they have anonymous donors with deep pockets. Then Will again brings up the question of what they're going to do if attacked by humans, moral dilemma-wise. "Not killing humans is what separates us from the bad guys" is Willow's position, while Buffy maintains that "not being bad" is the difference. Unfortunately, the Slayer's belief in the rightness of her cause is kind of a problem these days when there's so many of them. Buffy doesn't know what to do about Voll's army yet. But then she fwoomps out of there...
...and to Lady Genevieve's place, courtesy of Roden's magic. Faith is looking on and freaking out, not having known what was going down. Gigi's kitted up for battle, thinking cake walk. Buffy's barfing up her chicken caesar wrap. Then the fight is on.
They fight and banter, and Buffy finds out Gigi has been killing other slayers. She's about to finish Gigi off when Faith jumps in. They go out through a window together (again) and land in a swimming pool. Buffy is not in a good mood. She immediately and unfairly I think assumes Faith is behind the whole thing. I know you've been through a teleport and an attempted assassination, B, but think it through. She just figures Faith is trying to start up a rival group of slayers under her leadership, and she should know better.
So they fight in the pool, even though Faith starts by trying to talk. Tells her about Giles' undercover mission, which is not going to go over well. It's funny, Buffy's first reaction is to believe the worst of Faith and disbelieve that Giles would leave her out of the loop on something, which is the opposite of where they ended up in season 7. Faith freaks out at being called a liar and starts choking Buffy and holding her underwater, reminiscent of Buffy's season 3 dream in Consequences. Faith is still stuck in the past too, thinking "whenever she's around, you're the villain" and "never forget how deep she cut you." But she comes out of it and let's Buffy go.
And as they finally have a moment where they seem to be able to start talking things through, Willow pulls Buffy back to Scotland. Damn it! After barfing again, Buffy grimly says, "Get me Giles."
Back at the manor, Faith is tired, depressed and not all that happy about living. Luckily? Gigi has a solution for that. The issue ends with Gigi saying something to Faith that resonates for Faith and Buffy as well. "I thought you were my friend."
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Where am I?
So obviously been falling down on my self-imposed comic recapping job. It was easy to do when I had a scheduled time for it, less easy when my schedule changed and life stuff happened and I just didn't reschedule. Now I've had a bunch of stuff added to my plate of late and just haven't had time free when I was feeling like I could take on a project that required some thought and creativity. No comments about limited amount of creativity and thought that might actually appear to be in the recaps; the point is it takes some effort on my part and I've been not in the zone.
Lame excuse, but there you go. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll be back to it. I seem to have a 2-hour break whilst in the middle of nowhere (in relation to my home) on TTh now that may give me an in again to the blog. So we'll see how that goes.
Funny to talk as though I have readers. I know I don't, but that's the blog convention, to pretend you have an audience, and an audience that cares.
Lately been watching the Killing. Awesome Seattle noir mystery set inside a Vermeer painting. Totally geeking out over how beautifully it's shot. Almost don't care about the story or the mystery or the characters. It's just so pretty. Maybe I'm finally developing more of an eye for TV/Film visuals. That stuff used to just fly by me, but now I take the time to pay more attention. It's very interesting.
Also watching the Good Wife, which has more nuanced characters than most legal procedurals I've seen. Got through season 1 and moving on. Haven't seen Game of Thrones yet.
I watched Winter's Bone and Kick-Ass at home recently, found both enjoyable. Watched Rango and Super in the theaters and enjoyed them as well. Read all of Watchmen finally. Absolutely brilliant. Guess I'll have to see what they did with the movie at some point. Reminds me I want to see Sucker Punch for myself and see on which side of the divide I fall. Also hearing great things about Hanna. And want to see Scream 4 'cause I loved those movies. Yes, even the third one.
Finishing up the Shield with my viewing friend this week. That's been a fun ride. I think we'll probably move on to Spartacus next.
Been listening to a lot of podcasts: Gobbledygeek, NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour, Slate's Gabfest, Hellmouth & Investigating Angel podcasts, Nerdist, WTF with Mark Maron being in the highest rotation. Also Potentialcast, but I'm up and down with that one. I think they do a great job, and often it's fun to listen, but the tone is pretty well established to be snarky, MST3K-style and I just don't like hearing all Buffy episodes subjected to that. That's why I can't read TWOP Buffy recaps; I actually like (read freakin' adore) the show and it pains me to hear every aspect of it made fun of. Snark where appropriate is vastly different from make fun of everything even when they enjoyed the episode. Just not my thing.
I found myself, while rewatching Amends for example, thinking about how awful they're going to treat that episode, and it makes me sad and overly defensive. So I have to take a deep breath and move on from them sometimes. Bryan Curry is a great antidote because he talks about what he likes as well as what he doesn't, as well as tackling bigger themes that the potentials couldn't cover just because they haven't seen the whole show.
And that's about it for my entertainment food lately. As always, enjoying io9. And also Brain Pickings. Noel Murray (AV Club) on Fringe and Buffy. Jacob Clifton (TWOP) on anything anytime. Don't know why I turned this entry into a few of my (current) favorite things, but it is what it is.
Gotta head back into the breach now. Later
Lame excuse, but there you go. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll be back to it. I seem to have a 2-hour break whilst in the middle of nowhere (in relation to my home) on TTh now that may give me an in again to the blog. So we'll see how that goes.
Funny to talk as though I have readers. I know I don't, but that's the blog convention, to pretend you have an audience, and an audience that cares.
Lately been watching the Killing. Awesome Seattle noir mystery set inside a Vermeer painting. Totally geeking out over how beautifully it's shot. Almost don't care about the story or the mystery or the characters. It's just so pretty. Maybe I'm finally developing more of an eye for TV/Film visuals. That stuff used to just fly by me, but now I take the time to pay more attention. It's very interesting.
Also watching the Good Wife, which has more nuanced characters than most legal procedurals I've seen. Got through season 1 and moving on. Haven't seen Game of Thrones yet.
I watched Winter's Bone and Kick-Ass at home recently, found both enjoyable. Watched Rango and Super in the theaters and enjoyed them as well. Read all of Watchmen finally. Absolutely brilliant. Guess I'll have to see what they did with the movie at some point. Reminds me I want to see Sucker Punch for myself and see on which side of the divide I fall. Also hearing great things about Hanna. And want to see Scream 4 'cause I loved those movies. Yes, even the third one.
Finishing up the Shield with my viewing friend this week. That's been a fun ride. I think we'll probably move on to Spartacus next.
Been listening to a lot of podcasts: Gobbledygeek, NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour, Slate's Gabfest, Hellmouth & Investigating Angel podcasts, Nerdist, WTF with Mark Maron being in the highest rotation. Also Potentialcast, but I'm up and down with that one. I think they do a great job, and often it's fun to listen, but the tone is pretty well established to be snarky, MST3K-style and I just don't like hearing all Buffy episodes subjected to that. That's why I can't read TWOP Buffy recaps; I actually like (read freakin' adore) the show and it pains me to hear every aspect of it made fun of. Snark where appropriate is vastly different from make fun of everything even when they enjoyed the episode. Just not my thing.
I found myself, while rewatching Amends for example, thinking about how awful they're going to treat that episode, and it makes me sad and overly defensive. So I have to take a deep breath and move on from them sometimes. Bryan Curry is a great antidote because he talks about what he likes as well as what he doesn't, as well as tackling bigger themes that the potentials couldn't cover just because they haven't seen the whole show.
And that's about it for my entertainment food lately. As always, enjoying io9. And also Brain Pickings. Noel Murray (AV Club) on Fringe and Buffy. Jacob Clifton (TWOP) on anything anytime. Don't know why I turned this entry into a few of my (current) favorite things, but it is what it is.
Gotta head back into the breach now. Later
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