Buffy ,'Help'
Is it better the second time around? Or the third? Or tenth? This is the place to come when you have a burning desire to talk about an old episode that was just re-run.
A blog entry from one of my favorite blogs that talks about law in the context of comics, scifi, etc. (the multiverse)
Buffyverse Vampires and Criminal Liability
(although I will quibble slightly with his interpretation that vampires are possessed with the soul of a demon. As Angel said, the demon doesn't take the soul, it's gone. It doesn't change the analysis)
The add on was released on Christmas? Fitting. Thanks, DCJ.
Since they’re dead, they can’t be human. That’s not very satisfying or interesting, though, so I’m going to ignore it.
That was fun. Kinda makes me miss Lindsey. (extra " on your link)
I don't understand why I feel defensive of Mark. I don't know the guy at all, and I sometimes find myself getting irritated by his writing style. But still I don't like it when others criticize him. For the very same things I just rolled my eyes at moments before! Weird.
Mark is surprisingly not squeeful about "The Wish," instead calling the early shift away from Cordelia (in an ostensibly Cordelia-centric episode) and the fact that no one remembers the Wishverse critical flaws.
In terms of these characters, though? It stinks. I hate it. No one learns anything. No one remembers anything. Nothing happened. No one grew, no one became a better person, and the only person who could have possibly gleamed a message from all of this is the audience. I think I would have preferred a barely tolerable explanation that kept the ramifications of that parallel world in someone's mind. I suppose that since Cordelia died in her wish, it was inevitable that all of this wouldn’t matter. But I'm just not a fan of stories that don't matter. Why tell them if they just disappear and if they have no lasting effects?
He liked it, but not as much as pretty much everyone else does.
I'm curious what he'll think once he gets to Dopplegangland. And the eventual ongoing presence of Anya.
Yeah, I get how on an initial viewing, you could think, okay, nothing really changed, that was fun, so I do wonder if he'll retroactively like the episode more after he sees its place in the series.
I actually like The Wish less and less every time I watch it. I still enjoy Vamp!Willow and Vamp! Xander, but the Master rises and builds an automated system for draining blood from humans? It seems lamer every time I see it.
The whole point of this alternate universe is to show Cordelia that she needs to assign blame where it needs to go.
I think Mark is wrong in this. I thought the whole point was to show what Sunnydale would be like without Buffy. Cordelia's wish is just what allows us to see that. Plus, to introduce Anya, but of course Mark wouldn't know that. Cordelia never really stops blaming Buffy for everything, even when she is on Angel, so if Mark is looking for that to happen, he's out of luck.
I like alternate universe storylines or what if story lines even if the characters don't remember because it's interesting to see what might have been. At least it's interesting for me anyway.
Even if Joss had never followed up with The Wish it still showed the viewers what could have been.