Welcome to the Hellmouth
Sep. 20th, 2016 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI've just started listening to a new podcast, Buffering the Vampire Slayer, which is going through Buffy one episode at a time and discussing them. It's rather good :-)
While listening to the first episode, though, I realised that I'd forgotten so many details about Welcome to the Hellmouth. It's been ages since I last watched it! So yesterday, while on my exercise bike, I did a rewatch and remembered all over again why I loved the show so much.
It's little things, really. Willow is still so sweet, so untainted by everything that happens later. I remember loving how hopeful and optimistic she was, even though it's clear she's been picked on most of her life. It's why she was always one of my favourites: I recognised a lot of myself in her, but Willow was a better version of it.
The other thing that really struck me was Buffy herself. In my head, S1 Buffy is the pre-trauma Buffy. Everything is much brighter, she's happier, nothing bad has happened yet. But that's so far from the truth! The Buffy we meet in the first episode is already traumatised, already trying to process things no sixteen year-old should, already experiencing her life falling apart due to her calling. Somehow, I blocked that out. We never get to see happy care-free Buffy, not really, because she's been through a lot before she even sets foot in Sunnydale. My impression of Buffy in S1 being so much less burdened is only because I'm comparing her to S6/S7 Buffy. She isn't as dark as she becomes, but the Buffy we see in S1 is traumatised and fits a lot of the symptoms for PTSD.
BtVS was my first participatory fandom and it has so many good memories for me. I think that I'll be doing a rewatch to keep up with the podcast, re-experiencing how it felt to wait for new episodes. This week's podcast is on The Harvest, so I'll watch that tonight, and then it's weekly Buffy for me for a while :-)
While listening to the first episode, though, I realised that I'd forgotten so many details about Welcome to the Hellmouth. It's been ages since I last watched it! So yesterday, while on my exercise bike, I did a rewatch and remembered all over again why I loved the show so much.
It's little things, really. Willow is still so sweet, so untainted by everything that happens later. I remember loving how hopeful and optimistic she was, even though it's clear she's been picked on most of her life. It's why she was always one of my favourites: I recognised a lot of myself in her, but Willow was a better version of it.
The other thing that really struck me was Buffy herself. In my head, S1 Buffy is the pre-trauma Buffy. Everything is much brighter, she's happier, nothing bad has happened yet. But that's so far from the truth! The Buffy we meet in the first episode is already traumatised, already trying to process things no sixteen year-old should, already experiencing her life falling apart due to her calling. Somehow, I blocked that out. We never get to see happy care-free Buffy, not really, because she's been through a lot before she even sets foot in Sunnydale. My impression of Buffy in S1 being so much less burdened is only because I'm comparing her to S6/S7 Buffy. She isn't as dark as she becomes, but the Buffy we see in S1 is traumatised and fits a lot of the symptoms for PTSD.
BtVS was my first participatory fandom and it has so many good memories for me. I think that I'll be doing a rewatch to keep up with the podcast, re-experiencing how it felt to wait for new episodes. This week's podcast is on The Harvest, so I'll watch that tonight, and then it's weekly Buffy for me for a while :-)
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Date: 2016-09-20 03:56 pm (UTC)This sounds like a great podcast. Thanks for the rec! BtVS was a great fandom - and funny enough, but my SGA/BtVS crossover is one of my best-received fics ever. :)
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Date: 2016-09-20 05:08 pm (UTC)I think Joyce is one of the best TV portrayals of mothers out there. She doesn't always get it right, but she tries her best and she's always trying to be fair and be better at the parenting thing. They did point out on the podcast that it was a little odd she let Buffy go off to a nightclub so soon after getting kicked out of a school, but that's actually very Joyce--always trying to see the best in Buffy and hoping Buffy has learned from her experiences. She tries to let Buffy grow and make mistakes while providing guidance and fair rules. You get the feeling that she takes their new beginning really seriously and wants to change things for both of them.
I really enjoyed the first ep of the podcast and I'm looking forward to more!
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Date: 2016-09-20 04:19 pm (UTC)Giles, on the other hand, for all the Ripper backstory, is Mr Sunshine.
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Date: 2016-09-20 05:15 pm (UTC)She's somewhat suicidal by the end of season one.
And it only gets worse from there! I think that's why I forget that S1 Buffy isn't a happy person. It's a relative thing: S1 Buffy versus S5 Buffy is such a difference.
Giles, on the other hand, for all the Ripper backstory, is Mr Sunshine.
Honestly, I think that's why the Ripper backstory adds what it does. He's happy and excited about all the amazing awfulness in Sunnydale, because it's fascinating and it's a chance to save the world. Ripper was such a dark period of his life, but now he's a Watcher and he's doing good things and OMG he's got a Slayer on a Hellmouth, which is even better! Oh, Giles :-)
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Date: 2016-09-20 08:28 pm (UTC)I spend all night at work listening to podcasts, so I added this one to my app and I'll check it out. (Though I doubt I'll be doing a rewatch, since I spend so little time in front of the TV nowadays.)
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Date: 2016-09-29 05:16 pm (UTC)I suspect my Buffy icons are trapped in the limbo of not having a paid account any more :-)