More Buffy

[itsnotmymind]

I feel like I've been negative about other people's Buffy thoughts that I have encountered lately, so I wanted to point out something I approve of: I've seen a lot of posts lately on how Kendra was totally screwed over. I agree with this, as Kendra was totally screwed over.

 

In other Buffy thoughts: Did you know that Buffy season 5 is really, really good? I think I actually forgot how good it is.

 

Also I find it interesting that after No Place Like Home, a very Dawn & Buffy focused episode, we have Family, where we get to see the toxic sibling pair of Tara & Donny. Tara is (supposedly) different from her father and brother due to her demon side just as Dawn is different due to  being the key. But Tara's family just sees her differentness as a way to control her.

Comments

[author_by_night]

Kendra was robbed. :(

I think season five is good, also. I love the episode with Tara's "family". I also don't hate Dawn.

[itsnotmymind]

I love Dawn. That said, I do think there were a lot of problems on the writing of her over S5-S7 (haven't read comics).

[honeymink]

Season 5 was always my favourite on par with season 2 for me.

Even at the time when it aired I was super sad and annoyed when Kendra was killed off. I'm not really part of the fandom but I always thought there was something to be said or written in terms of meta how Buffy, Kendra and Faith were so different in character and about approaching the slayer heritage.

If we think about the whole show … we never get to see Willow's, Xander's and Cordelia's parents really or know how much about their family dynamics … but judging by the Maclays, yes that was next level manipulation and gaslighting, and still when we first meet Buffy's parents/mother – be that the movie or the show really, they are not happy with Buffy either and Joyce when she learns what Buffy is and it sinks in, she is still far from accepting – that took a very long time. But you were talking about siblings... I haven't watched the episode in quite a while but didn't Tara have a sister too or a female cousin? And didn't she not only fall for the demon/anti-feminist narrative but actively propagated it? I can't do that too often or I go crazy but whenever I watch the 'Fundie Fridays' channel on Youtube and encounter things that are similar to this, it blows my mind – women being complicit in this in order to be agreeable to men and the patriachical society they live in... you can say there is not much choice but then, I feel there is living with it while not liking it and doubting it, and then there is wholeheartedly embrassing it so as to find approval. But I digress.

[itsnotmymind]

My favorites are season 5 or season 6.

Honestly, the minute I saw a black girl with Buffy's powers, I knew she was doomed. Predictable and offensive.

Tara has a female cousin named Beth, yes, who completely sides with the men. I assume Beth is from the other side of the family and therefore is not herself assumed to be demony?

And it's true that Joyce, to put it mildly, does not response well to Buffy's slayer revelation. But she does eventually accept it and get better about it, in a way that I can't picture Tara's family doing.

[honeymink]

I'd have to re-watch it but I actually thought that Beth is also considered afflicted by the men but that she has taken on this thinking about herself... internalized misogyny. That's why she is so angry with Tara, that Tara could break away and find new friends and live while she does everything the men in her family expect her to and is still considered to be bad and tainted.

[itsnotmymind]

The episode isn't clear.