Kinship and Forgiveness
Feb. 9th, 2004 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyWe tend to like characters that we can understand. People generally need to have an 'in', to be able to get inside that person, for some reason or another.
Which isn't to say that that's the only characters that get liked.
I like Buffy Summers - I have a lot in common with her. The only part where I had trouble was in Season Seven, when she had faith in Spike, which I couldn't understand. I'm starting to, now, but I'm not a Buffy or a Fred or an Andrew. When it comes to Spike, I'm much more an Angel. Season Seven was the first time that Buffy ever did anything that I couldn't understand right away. It broke my heart - she broke my heart. Which, in one sense, is silly - she's just a character on a television show. But in another sense, she's me.
Essence of teen girl grows up to be essence of woman - that's my Buffy. That's my BtVS - the journey from girl to woman.
When I watch something on a regular basis, I do put my heart into it. I can't quite see the point otherwise. Not only do I need to care to keep watching, I want to. My mom hates it when a show makes her cry, but I welcome it. Tear my heart out. Make me cry, make me laugh, make me think and change and grow.
Make me see outside myself.
I use what I love to show myself how to love. It's about challenging my own ideas - I want to know why I care, what I care about, and how to go about caring more. Slowly, I am learning the why and hows of my own heart and that's a valuable thing to know.
Buffy has taught me the value of so many things, but most of all, what I've learned is centered around forgiveness. People do horrible, stupid things sometimes. There's isn't a character on Buffy who hasn't. But that doesn't make them horrible or stupid. It makes them human. But before Season Seven, it didn't really hit home, because the show's central character had never done anything that I'd found it hard to forgive.
To err is human. To make mistakes is to be alive because life can't be made without them. You can't get to right without stopping by wrong at least a few times.
Life is a series of choices, and no matter how many times any one of us make the wrong choice, life remains a series of choices. It's all about choice and change, and sometimes you have to make the wrong choice in order to understand why it's the wrong choice.
Jasmine: "No. No, Angel. There are no absolutes. No right and wrong. Haven't you learned anything working for the Powers? There are only choices. I offered paradise. You chose this!"
Angel: "Because I could. Because that's what you took away from us. Choice."
Jasmine: "And look what free will has gotten you."
Angel: "Hey, I didn't say we were smart. I said it's our right. It's what makes us human."
- Peace Out
Which isn't to say that that's the only characters that get liked.
I like Buffy Summers - I have a lot in common with her. The only part where I had trouble was in Season Seven, when she had faith in Spike, which I couldn't understand. I'm starting to, now, but I'm not a Buffy or a Fred or an Andrew. When it comes to Spike, I'm much more an Angel. Season Seven was the first time that Buffy ever did anything that I couldn't understand right away. It broke my heart - she broke my heart. Which, in one sense, is silly - she's just a character on a television show. But in another sense, she's me.
Essence of teen girl grows up to be essence of woman - that's my Buffy. That's my BtVS - the journey from girl to woman.
When I watch something on a regular basis, I do put my heart into it. I can't quite see the point otherwise. Not only do I need to care to keep watching, I want to. My mom hates it when a show makes her cry, but I welcome it. Tear my heart out. Make me cry, make me laugh, make me think and change and grow.
Make me see outside myself.
I use what I love to show myself how to love. It's about challenging my own ideas - I want to know why I care, what I care about, and how to go about caring more. Slowly, I am learning the why and hows of my own heart and that's a valuable thing to know.
Buffy has taught me the value of so many things, but most of all, what I've learned is centered around forgiveness. People do horrible, stupid things sometimes. There's isn't a character on Buffy who hasn't. But that doesn't make them horrible or stupid. It makes them human. But before Season Seven, it didn't really hit home, because the show's central character had never done anything that I'd found it hard to forgive.
To err is human. To make mistakes is to be alive because life can't be made without them. You can't get to right without stopping by wrong at least a few times.
Life is a series of choices, and no matter how many times any one of us make the wrong choice, life remains a series of choices. It's all about choice and change, and sometimes you have to make the wrong choice in order to understand why it's the wrong choice.
Jasmine: "No. No, Angel. There are no absolutes. No right and wrong. Haven't you learned anything working for the Powers? There are only choices. I offered paradise. You chose this!"
Angel: "Because I could. Because that's what you took away from us. Choice."
Jasmine: "And look what free will has gotten you."
Angel: "Hey, I didn't say we were smart. I said it's our right. It's what makes us human."
- Peace Out
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Re:
Date: 2004-02-11 07:05 pm (UTC)Actually, it has a lot to do with what you said - she conflated Spike with Angel. She had to believe that a soul was a special, beautiful, difference-making thing because of Angel(us). Because of what had happened with that.
But even then, she never struck me as a bad person - but a fundamentally lost person - and someone in desperate need of a sabbatical.
Exactly. Buffy needed a break. Luckily, she has one now and I wish only the best for her in Rome.