Season One, Retcons, and Souls. A Ponderment by Fender.

[fenderlove]

My thoughts are all a-flame over a conversation on the IDW Forum about souls in the Buffyverse. Can souls be involuntarily taken away? We saw Buffy get half of hers involuntarily sucked out in S4, and we know that the Mayor voluntarily sold his, but can the average Jane-or-Joe on the street have their soul taken away against their will in the 'verse?

How do you feel about Season One of BtVS? Do you ignore it? Is it okay to ignore it because of writer/director interviews? Because some stuff gets retconned later, do you pretend that those earlier instances didn't happen or do you find your own personal explanation? Do you have an explanation from a writer, actor, or director that you point to as how you explain particular retcons? Do you have a explanation from another fan (a fansplanation, if you will) that you use? Is it fair to argue that because a writer/director/actor says one thing that flies in the context of the show that one's explanation is somehow more correct than someone only using the show as a basis for their side of the discussion?

Is there really a concrete mythology of the Buffyverse? Or do you believe it can change when the writers/directors decide that it needs to change or it's convenient to change?

F**king magnets. How do they work?

Talk to me. Tell me what you think. :D

Comments

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. I mean, the Master says flat-out in S1 that he and Luke have souls, not "the demon," not "demonic essence," but souls. I can't ignore that, and I can't ignore that while saying the very word soul disgusted Darla later when in S1 she's practically having an orgasm while the Master talks about binding his soul with another vampire's soul. Just because Joss shrugged and said, "Oh, that? Yeah, we didn't really know what we were doing, so ignore it." doesn't cut it with me.

If the actors and other writers felt like things could be changed on a whim to fit the story's needs, then I have to sort of believe that one could believe everything and nothing as possibilities. Vampires age but they don't if the writers need them to stay pretty. Vampires don't breath but they can be drowned yet they can't. Vampires don't sweat unless Joss gets frustrated with how long the constant reapplication of make-up was taking. Vampires were the result of the last Old One leaving this reality, yet not all the Old Ones left this reality... some are in the Deeper Well and some can be called forth into a human vessel through Ascension. At first, it seems like Slayers were part of the nature order of things, but then you find out that they were just engineered from demon dust by a bunch of people too scared to fight on their own so they pick a young girl. And then there's the Guardians that do absolutely nothing. Oh, my head is starting to hurt. Is it really so hard to pick a mythology and go with it?

[shapinglight]

This same person in that thread said she felt that Joss actually took pride in not paying attention to details like these, and I'm inclined to agree.

It's no wonder Firefly is so crap.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Joss does tend to be a little like Ed Wood sans the charm. Part of me can respect him for telling the story that he wants to tell, but mostly I just want to smack him upside the head for not just going with one principle and sticking to it. I mean, I can't even get started on the weirdness that is Spike's chip, not to mention the triple personality of Angel (why is souled Angel instantly filled with remorse when human Liam didn't seem to exactly have a pure, innocent, guilty-conscious-giving soul? Like, I expect that maybe Spike's soul might cause him more grief because of William's innocence, but I just don't know). Also, why are Orbs of Thessulah just hanging about? Are spirit vaults of the undead really in that high of a demand? Why can't I find a scythe in the only pyramid-shaped tomb in all of the dozen-plus cemeteries in Sunnydale?

[shapinglight]

Joss does tend to be a little like Ed Wood sans the charm.

ROFL. Agree that very little of it makes sense, but I think the Guardian in End of Days is the most egregious example of inventing mythology on the hoof. That character really is dreadful. Plus, why does she look like she escaped from an amateur production of Gotterdammerung?

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Plus, why does she look like she escaped from an amateur production of Gotterdammerung?

*snorfle* XD

I can almost (almost but not really) forgive the scythe because it was in Fray first, but the Guardian being there to do nothing but get killed by Caleb is just like, "What was the point of that? Couldn't Buffy just find a scroll or something that tells her the exact same thing and then Caleb shows up to fight?" Speaking of, what's with Spike and Andrew going to that weird monastery just to find the carving "It is for she alone to wield" and all that? It was a waste of time to get Spike out of the house so that Buffy could be isolated, but they learned nothing really from that that I could remember.