As far as a lot of the Buffyverse mythology is concerned, I know that a lot of things factually contradict each other, but I tend to treat it as, well, mythology, especially when it's said by someone. So there are several competing ideas/stories of how things work (especially for things like the Old Ones), without any real substantial 'proof'. Some people are more reliable than others - and I tend to build the vague chronology in my head around things like Illyria knowing what vampires are - but otherwise just take it as subjective opinion. When the Master talks about his soul, I just wonder whether I should believe him (even though we don't hear his reasons for re-labelling himself, that doesn't mean he didn't decide to rebel against humanocentric terminology in 1836 - nor that Darla doesn't think it's daft and only humours him as much as she needs to, while still thinking Angel is disgusting). Naturally vampires like to tell stories about themselves to make them seem like more than reanimated corpses, though why Angel (perhaps) didn't want to get the way of the prophecy saying Buffy would die - and so used not breathing to excuse himself from being the actual one to save her - is one of the more sinister questions of our times. And FFL doesn't have to be anything more than Spike's subjective memory, which he's been reasserting in his mind for so long it feels like the truth (though he forgets to stop calling Angelus his sire). Maybe Dru completely forgot the whole 'feeding him her own blood' bit and Angelus had to save the day...
Obviously, most of that's crap, because the real answer is that Joss couldn't be arsed. I tend to distinguish that sort of writerly stuff from my 'reading' the show, though, because I don't think there's any reason why the show has to be doing anything other than presenting all the contradictions and leaving you to sort it out - I don't think it has to be clear what's intentional contradiction and what's unintentional. And I don't think I have to listen to Joss. ;)
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Date: 2011-03-19 11:03 am (UTC)As far as a lot of the Buffyverse mythology is concerned, I know that a lot of things factually contradict each other, but I tend to treat it as, well, mythology, especially when it's said by someone. So there are several competing ideas/stories of how things work (especially for things like the Old Ones), without any real substantial 'proof'. Some people are more reliable than others - and I tend to build the vague chronology in my head around things like Illyria knowing what vampires are - but otherwise just take it as subjective opinion. When the Master talks about his soul, I just wonder whether I should believe him (even though we don't hear his reasons for re-labelling himself, that doesn't mean he didn't decide to rebel against humanocentric terminology in 1836 - nor that Darla doesn't think it's daft and only humours him as much as she needs to, while still thinking Angel is disgusting). Naturally vampires like to tell stories about themselves to make them seem like more than reanimated corpses, though why Angel (perhaps) didn't want to get the way of the prophecy saying Buffy would die - and so used not breathing to excuse himself from being the actual one to save her - is one of the more sinister questions of our times. And FFL doesn't have to be anything more than Spike's subjective memory, which he's been reasserting in his mind for so long it feels like the truth (though he forgets to stop calling Angelus his sire). Maybe Dru completely forgot the whole 'feeding him her own blood' bit and Angelus had to save the day...
Obviously, most of that's crap, because the real answer is that Joss couldn't be arsed. I tend to distinguish that sort of writerly stuff from my 'reading' the show, though, because I don't think there's any reason why the show has to be doing anything other than presenting all the contradictions and leaving you to sort it out - I don't think it has to be clear what's intentional contradiction and what's unintentional. And I don't think I have to listen to Joss. ;)