Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Love/Hate Relationships

First of all, let me start this post with a shout-out to one of my fellow Fictionistas: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RHONDA!!!

Okay, confession time. Unlike most people, I was never on the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer bandwagon. I tend to resist popular things. Don't know why, I just do. However, after falling in love with Firefly and the recent Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, my taste for more Joss Whedon enterprises (and the ever-delicious David Boreanaz) led me to Hulu, a site that lets you watch some TV and movie for free. In the course of a few days, I devoured the first two seasons of Buffy.

I watched the last episode of season two last night. And wept like a little girl. My heart was broken. Why? I'm spoiler protecting this next part in case you haven't seen the show yet either: Because Buffy had to kill Angel, the only man she'd ever loved, to save the world.

At once, I both loved and hated Joss for what he'd made me feel. The way he'd twisted my emotions and drawn me in and made me care. And hurt. At that point, Romeo and Juliet made perfect sense. I wanted a do-over, a differnt ending, an HEA for everyone. I was mad. But I wanted more. (And can I say, I can completely understand the reason for fanfic now? I mean, I'm already rewriting that ending in my head.)

It's a rare show/book/movie that does that to me. Joss seems to do it over and over - I should know to expect it, and I kind of do, but I still hope things will go differently. Has anything ever had that effect on you? What's your reaction to that kind of thing?

11 comments:

  1. DUDE. Thanks for the b-day wishes!!

    I haven't watched much Buffy, either--but now I'm thinking I should!!!

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  2. Happy Birthday Rhonda!!

    I'll admit to not watching Buffy either but now I want to watch. I get that do over feeling all the time with soaps. I will admit to being a long time on again off again soap watcher. All My Children is my fave. I often want a do over there. But if there was a HEA then the soap would be over.

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  3. You and me BOTH sister! If something is popular I go int the OPPOSITE direction. And I have to admit-it took me until this year to even watch something from Joss. And I'm right there with ya. Firefly came first (and I can wax eloquent on my abounding love for it) and then Dr Horrible. Believe it or not, I've still yet to watch Buffy, but now I will.

    And your link on your blog is broken?

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  4. Happy B-day Rhonda!!!!!

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  5. Happy B-Day Rhonda!

    I watched Buffy off and on. Sometimes the cheesiness was too much for me but I did LOVE ANGEL! Thus began my obsession with David Boreanz... now I have followed him to BONES. I do love Joss Whedon, he's one of those clever fellas. I might have to go to Hulu and watch all the Buffy's again...

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  6. I just watched the first two episodes of Buffy.

    Kristen, you are evil.

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  7. Anonymous3:20 PM

    Happy bday, Rhonda!

    I've never been a big Buffy fan, but I'm a sucker for a love-hate relationship...especially if they EVENTUALLY end up together.

    Devoured Diana Peterfreund's latest. Girl does love-hates like nobody's business.

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  8. Yah I even have the Angel cello theme song on my MP3 player.

    Happiness Rhonda baby.

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  9. Lordy, I am a huge fan of Buffy and I know just how you feel. I didn't climb on board until the show was off air. Believe it or not, the reason I tried it out was because of my college English classes. There is a PLETHORA of scholarly essays about that show. We read a few in class, so I netflixed Season One out of curiosity. I quickly blew my budget and purchased all seven seasons and my dd and I watched them together.

    The cheese is great because they KNOW when they are being cheesy, so it's like an in-joke.

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  10. Wow. And I thought I came late to Buffy because I didn't start watching it till the end of the first season! :-) (Not that I watched it out of order...but the WB wisely re-ran the whole first season once it finished, to pick up folks like me.)

    I feel like I've blundered into a country where folks keep saying "chocolate? oh, I heard that's good, I'm going to try it sometime." ;-)

    Cara

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  11. BTW, I think some of the pictures in the blog recently aren't coming out the way intended...

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