Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6x17 FULL Reaction
Added 2024-11-21 05:57:38 +0000 UTC
Comments
Yeah, it doesn't seem very popular in the server either :/ not that they so much hate it, but it's kind of a throw-away episode for folks because it doesn't really seem to further the current storyline that's happening, I guess. Which on some level, I can agree with, but still. I think some also have a problem with the ambiguity of it and then they get into arguments about whether or not it was real, lol. Oh well. Such is life, I suppose :P It's really almost meta (if not entirely so) with the way they write everything to be on the nose of what Buffy is as a whole to us; a fantasy reality about this, that, or the other. That aspect of it is almost like breaking the 4th wall, without actually doing it. As for me? Eh. It's not my favorite, but I don't 'outright hate' it. I just think there's better episodes and could take it or leave it. I feel the same way about Xander-centric eps or ones where nothing really happens to further the current story arc. Oh and to answer your question about Spike, this isn't the first time he's had a grocery bag. Most often filled with smokes and blood, but sometimes I believe he has the occasional human food. Generally, it's the first two though and in this ep, you can see the cartons of cigs peeking out.
fatalfae
2024-12-20 22:01:29 +0000 UTCThere are certain Buffy fans that outright hate this episode. I love it. I thought it was really well done and I like that it leaves it ambiguous at the end. Really dark stuff in this episode. She was willing to kill her friends to live in the easier reality.
Christina Gmiterko
2024-11-28 20:31:03 +0000 UTCIn his audio commentaries for "Normal Again," the director Rick Rosenthal said that the episode's ending is intentionally ambiguous, leaving it to the viewer to decide whether it was real or not. On the theory that "Normal Again" revealed Buffy's actual world, Joss Whedon commented: "How important it is in the scheme of the Buffy narrative is really up to the person watching. If they decide that the entire thing is all playing out in some crazy person's head, well, the joke of the thing to us was it is, and that crazy person is me. It was kind of the ultimate postmodern look at the concept of a writer writing a show, which is not the sort of thing we usually do on the show. The show had merit in itself because it did raise the question, 'How can you live in this world and be sane?'. But at the same time the idea amused me very much and we played on it a little bit, 'How come her little sister is taller than her?', 'What was Adam's plan?'. We played on the crazy things we came up with time and time again, to make this fantasy show work and called them into question the way any normal person would. But ultimately the entire series takes place in the mind of a lunatic locked up somewhere in Los Angeles, if that's what the viewer wants. Personally, I think it really happened." Marti Noxon, in turn, was more direct in denying this theory: "It was a fake out; we were having some fun with the audience. I don't want to denigrate what the whole show has meant. If Buffy's not empowered then what are we saying? If Buffy's crazy, then there is no girl power; it's all fantasy. And really the whole show stands for the opposite of that, which is that it isn't just a fantasy. There should be girls that can kick ass. So I'd be really sad if we made that statement at the end. That's why it's just somewhere in the middle saying 'Wouldn't it be funny if...?' or 'Wouldn't this be sad or tragic if...?' In my feeling, and I believe in Joss' as well that's not the reality of the show. It was just a tease and a trick." At ComicCon 2013, while speaking about this episode, Whedon mentioned that, during his time writing Astonishing X-Men, he envisioned Cyclops, whose real name is Scott Summers, making a reference to a female cousin of his who had been sent to a mental institution for believing she was a demon hunter. However, he could not find an appropriate place in the storyline to fit it in, and therefore it was never featured. ...so yes, the ending was somewhat of a trolling/showing the other reality. Buffy chose one, so she died in the other. the "it was all a dream/hallucination" trope is older than Buffy. also, in popular Harry Potter fan theories people speculate that Hogwarts is just his dream or hallucination.. ... people still speculate today about Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger,did he dream it all? Basically the answer to which reality is the true one does not matter much, because they are both fiction anyway - what matters is that the themes and messages still stand strong, especially in Buffy. I somewhat disagree with Noxon here... there is no girl power, it's just fantasy....? But the 'fantasy' is the power. Not actual sickness and hallucinations, of course, but here in our real world, these writers use fantasies of Buffy's struggles to demonstrate how to overcome both adversities and temptations - that is the power. None of the writers, male or female, physically fight any vampires, but their fantasy, projected on our screens, is their power, that gives power and will to go on, to the viewers.
Viera Galikova
2024-11-21 21:55:24 +0000 UTCHer "ideal reality". Joyce says: We will take care of you. You're a little girl. From Buffy's perspective, the other reality is much easier. Caring, loving parents, no responsibilities, just the goal of beating one specific illness, being taken care of by loving parents, as if she was a beloved little kid. Some people, including me, when I first saw this episode, assumed that Buffy had an "easy" choice of staying in the reality where she's the slayer, because "omg she's a cool superhero". What we missed was, that for Buffy, the reality where her mom is still alive, her parents are together and her only real struggle is a sickness, is actually very appealing. In the real world, Buffy is abandoned by both her father and somewhat by Giles, her mom is dead, her younger sister is her responsibility and she struggles with kleptomania, her friends struggle with addiction and harsh breakups, her love life is basically non-existent or seriously messed up, some weird exlover is telling her bunch of mean crap, her finances depend on her, and she has to risk her life daily/nightly because if she doesn't, people in her town will die.... wouldn't it be better to be a sick child with two loving great parents and zero responsibilities? Joyce's motivational speech is Buffy's own mind healing itself, as well as all the best things the memories of her mom and the love of her mom can provide Buffy with. Her mom died, but everything good she ever gave Buffy is still part of Buffy. Also, Buffy's own mind is giving a real pep talk to herself, dressed in a Joyce-costume. This is how we use all our good memories to heal and fight. A superhuman chosen to save the world? Nothing ridiculous about it, and the writers know it. Every single one of us is that superhuman. Spike has groceries for pleasure. He's often shown enjoying not only alcohol but also various human food. He needs blood as a vampire, but he also chooses to eat and drink just for the taste. *stake them all right now, Buffy ... she cannot. She can't kill humans. She made it clear to Faith in season 3. This is how Buffy constantly grows into the best version of herself and stays free. By exercising freedom of choice. She chooses what is right. She's not an agent with a license to kill humans. She's also not a monster who kills humans. "just three pathetic little men who like playing with toys" ... yup ... computers,cars,nfts,crypto, ....
Viera Galikova
2024-11-21 19:46:09 +0000 UTC
