kaberett | Buffy the Manic Pixie Dream Girl; Sad Vampire

Here are our collective thoughts on the series so far (we're halfway through BtMPDG s4/SV s1), and I apologise to those of you who um SHOW OF MY HEART about this, because I am really not. And on the other hand I am still watching and intending to ride it out, so.

Joss Whedon is a JERK.
Seriously, why are all the men douchebros and all of the women kind of vapid no REALLY why does Willow start getting more consistent characterisation when she starts being attracted to women that is just CREEPY
The sheer degree of inconsistent characterisation is such that the only way I can make any sense of Buffy is reading her as living with pretty bloody major PTSD - otherwise the way she is suddenly super-clumsy and incompetent every time a ~new boy~ arrives on the scene just has to be rank misogyny, and even assuming rank misogyny on Whedon's part, I can't chalk up everything to her desperate, desperate desire not to let down the people she loves: that goes some way towards explaining why most of the time they don't get to see her going all-out, because if she keeps expectations low she'll not disappoint. (But if she miscalibrates, she'll get people killed.) WHEDON, WHY IS SHE A MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL.
Cordelia. Obviously from the kind of hideously abusive upper-middle-class family that nobody in a position of care notices is abusive because ~nice families don't do that~, or WHAT. (Which, uh, GUESS THAT EXPLAINS WHY SHE AND XANDER GOT ON SO WELL.)
WHY is this the series of NOBODY SODDING TALKS TO EACH OTHER? WHY. WHY. IT MAKES NO SENSE. THEY KEEP TELLING US THE MORAL IS TALK TO EACH OTHER AND THEN THEY DON'T.
The only possible way we've managed to reconcile "everyone's white" with "SoCal" is by constructing an elaborate AU in which the Cold War went the other way, the US became super-isolationist, heavy immigration controls are in place, and Giles and Wesley both got smuggled in via underground routes. (We know how the exchange students work. And how Kendra works. And how demons end up being so common in the US. When I say "elaborate", I mean it. We're going to write the backstory fic for, uh, all our deliberately dreadful fic.)
because seriously, the only way to cope with this show is by queering EVERYTHING and interpreting Xander as super-repressed, because FUCK YOU, Whedon, subtext isn't okay, and sly references that are supposed to ~make us feel represented~ and actually just make us a joke are also not. fucking. okay.
For that matter, why is ALL THE SEX dude-on-top? EXCEPT WHEN IT INVOLVES FAITH WHO IS EMASCULATING.
I am super fond of Giles the founder member of Pink Floyd, though.

Basically, for me this is the series of "oh god how was this the most feminist thing on TV in the 90s", and also the series of "I really love all the female characters and kind of want to give them all hugs and a show where they can ACTUALLY BE PEOPLE." AND FURTHERMORE it is the show that is going to get me writing RPF. Of 15yo Whedon writing graffiti in the school toilets about how THAT BICH (note spelling) IS A BICH Y DSNT SHE LUV HIIIIIIIIIIIM, and furthermore about his highly repressed attraction to the dude Larry is based on.