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

[thespikeofit.livejournal.com]

I'd say Joss is hopeless at creating a mythology to begin with and then can't cope with staying within its confines. Having said that where I have no problem is with stuff that Giles expositioned as to demonology. I think the Watcher's had their own myths to explain things and were not without an agenda. So their emphasis on separating the vampire from the person seemed to be rather convenient as far as helping persuade slayers to think in those terms even if everything we say of Angel/Spike/Harmony showed it was wrong. Not that I think Joss actually planned that out - it's just a fortunate way to make sense of some of the mythology set up from the early seasons.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Having said that where I have no problem is with stuff that Giles expositioned as to demonology.
True, and beyond that even in our own reality, we only have theories of how life was lived ions ago, so I don't necessarily have a problem with Giles or anyone really being wrong unintentionally within the 'verse either because the information they had was flawed or because someone, like the Watchers, intentionally skewed information in their favor. I guess the problem comes in in that the contradictions are never addressed and sometimes characters flatly deny that the contradictions exist. I suppose my brain just would not leave me alone today about this. I've never thought of the mythology of the show as shown on screen as concrete because it was routinely trounced, so I guess it weirds me out when I see people so hotly pointing out one instance as being proof-positive of something when there are two or three examples of the opposite being true. It's like each scene does not exist in a bubble; there are over twelve seasons total of episodes to deal with, not to mention that some people include interviews from the writers, directors, etc. into their personal views of the show, and some people consider the comics and novelizations as part of their POV as well, which I find really fascinating. :D