Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2023-05-27 04:51 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2023-05-27 04:51 pm
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A Tabula Rasa Meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Recently, the earthling’s gaming group got invited to a game using a system called Monster of the Week. He accepted because he loves tabletop RPGs, but there was a tiny problem: he didn’t know what a monster of the week was. He has no memory of watching a show like that, because the last one he saw was Doctor Who when he was like six. (Recent earthling faves: Dimension 20, The Good Place, Are You Being Served? These are not exactly monster of the week shows, unless capitalism, moral philosophy, and customers can be considered monsters. And having typed that out, I realize there’s an argument to be made there. But they aren’t classic monsters, anyway.)
The description of Monster of the Week, demonstrating how au courant the game designers are, namechecks Supernatural, X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all shows that, to the earthling’s gaming group, exist in distant prehistory with the dinosaurs and the Hittites and poodle skirts.
Our parental duty was clear: we had to educate this child. And that is why we sat down with some DVDs to show Buffy to someone who was born well after the last episode of Angel aired, someone who knows nothing about its history or fandom, someone who has never watched a TV show that didn’t autoplay the next episode three seconds into the closing credits. I was not a tabula rasa when I first watched Buffy, and neither was Best Beloved. We had no idea what to expect.
We started with “Hush,” because a) great episode b) you don’t need much background to understand it and c) GREAT episode. “Hush” became the episode so nice we watched it twice. The earthling’s opinion: “The stuff with Buffy and Riley is boring, but the Gentlemen are great. S-tier bad guys. I wonder if I could redo my Monster of the Week character to be a Gentleman?” (Does this make me wonder what the heck they’re doing in MotW? Yes, but I will leave that to that game’s DM because sometimes it’s better not to know.)
But he wanted more. We continued to cherry pick classic episodes -- “The Wish,” “Doppelgangland,” “Band Candy.” We waited patiently for him to get bored with this hokey show that was forcing him to learn about historical concepts like “midseason replacements” and, in fact, the entire idea of TV seasons that are linked to times of the year and the week. The earthling continued to choose Buffy over all other options when it was TV watching time.
After “Band Candy,” it seemed only reasonable to show him “Halloween.” As he waited through the FBI warning, something he does not typically experience before shows, he said thoughtfully, “Is Halloween in Sunnydale like the Christmas Truce in WWI? Do the vampires all stay home? No killing on Halloween?”
And it was at that point I realized where we were. The earthling had switched modes. He was not just watching TV. He was absorbing it. He was thinking about the show when it wasn’t on. He was analyzing the tiny scraps of lore he had from this out of order trawl through the highlights and he was trying to construct a narrative and rules and make sense of it all. He was developing ideas about what he wanted to happen.
He was becoming ... fannish. About Buffy. In 2023.
Best Beloved and I decided we’d need to go back in time. Since we were watching “Halloween” at that point, we went back to the episode that explained who the hell Ethan Rayne and Ripper were, “The Dark Age.” We’ve been marching forward ever since, watching episodes we barely remember and even episodes we’d love to forget. We just finished “Helpless,” and I think it’s time to jot down some notes on this whole Buffy-earthling situation.
The earthling’s overall summary of Buffy at this point: “It’s a good show. I like the worldbuilding, even though it seems like a lot of it was just kind of made up in the moment, but that’s kind of good, because you can do stuff with the holes in worldbuilding. I like how it’s integrated with the real world. Kind of the real world, anyway.” (Me to myself, in my own head: His obsessive love of Neverwhere should probably have prepared you for this burgeoning love of urban fantasy.) “It’s -- I don’t want to say of its time, because I don’t think that time was like that, either. How can it be in Southern California and have all these white people and be so separate from everywhere else? But it’s definitely not the world we live in anymore. It’s interesting, though. And I like the writing. The dialogue is really good a lot of the time.”
He also said, “It seems like they -- recycle stuff. Like they just keep redoing the same thing over and over. The world is always about to end, there’s always something making it hard for Buffy to do her job, someone is always having romantic trouble.” So that’s a big mission success on explaining monster of the week shows, anyway!
He pretty much hates all the romance except Willow/Tara, which so far he’s only encountered in “Hush.” At one point, after an extended Angel/Buffy scene that bored the shit out of him, he said, “If Willow and Tara don’t get AT LEAST this much kissing time, I am going to be really mad.”
This forced a quick digression on the History of Queerness on TV. (Okay, it wasn’t quick.) He was, as he himself predicted, mad. (“I don’t care if it was a step forward for the time period. The world shouldn’t be like that!”)
Specifically, he hates Buffy/Angel, partly because he doesn’t like Angel very much. His description of Angel: “He’s boring and he’s always depressed. He never does anything. There you go.” He does like Angelus, though: “He’s having fun and doing stuff. I like that.”
(I would have pointed out to him that doing nothing is significantly better than doing evil, but, well, I try to steer clear of hypocrisy in parenting, and I enjoy the heck out of Angelus, too.)
But he also doesn’t like Buffy/Angel because, in his own words:
At this point, I warned him that she also dates Spike, and he said, “Well, that’s a waste of a good character.” (Good work alienating fans of two of the main ships, earthling!)
He loves Willow, Oz, and Giles, plus, on the bad side, Angelus, the Mayor, Ethan Rayne, the Gentlemen, and Spike. He also likes vampire Willow and vampire Xander. “Why don’t we ever get to see Giles as a vampire?” he asked me once.
“Because the world would end,” I told him.
“You know that just makes me want to see it more,” he said.
He’s kind of okay with Willow/Oz, because that ship involves two of his favorite characters, but mostly he’s patiently waiting for Willow/Tara to arrive. (Are we going to continue past season four? Uhhhhhh well we’ve never done that before, so: I hope not. For one thing, the way Willow/Tara turns out is not going to make him happy. Also, this is already more Buffy than I’ve ever seen. If we don't stop soon, I'm going to end up writing fic for it.)
Probably the most surprising thing to me so far is that his favorite episodes are largely the major plot arc ones. He loved “Passion” and “Innocence” and “Becoming” (both parts), all episodes BB and I kind of winced our way through. He likes the big dramas more than the self-contained comedies, which I guess is developmentally on target. (It is really weird, let me note, watching this show with a kid who is almost 15. Specifically, it’s weird to remember that the characters are supposed to be -- well, roughly his age.)
I’m waiting to see how he takes the Faith arc that is coming up. He’s got no spoilers at all for it.
And that’s the weirdest thing about this. I can’t predict how he’ll react, because the stuff I remember as being a big deal often isn’t to him. Like, I remember hearts and friendships breaking over Xander’s Lie. His reaction to it? Balanced and measured and understated. It’s like watching Buffy in a world where no one else is. Because, I suppose, that’s what we’re actually doing.
Anyway. If anyone wants to join us, we’re watching “Bad Girls” next. Wish us luck!
The description of Monster of the Week, demonstrating how au courant the game designers are, namechecks Supernatural, X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all shows that, to the earthling’s gaming group, exist in distant prehistory with the dinosaurs and the Hittites and poodle skirts.
Our parental duty was clear: we had to educate this child. And that is why we sat down with some DVDs to show Buffy to someone who was born well after the last episode of Angel aired, someone who knows nothing about its history or fandom, someone who has never watched a TV show that didn’t autoplay the next episode three seconds into the closing credits. I was not a tabula rasa when I first watched Buffy, and neither was Best Beloved. We had no idea what to expect.
We started with “Hush,” because a) great episode b) you don’t need much background to understand it and c) GREAT episode. “Hush” became the episode so nice we watched it twice. The earthling’s opinion: “The stuff with Buffy and Riley is boring, but the Gentlemen are great. S-tier bad guys. I wonder if I could redo my Monster of the Week character to be a Gentleman?” (Does this make me wonder what the heck they’re doing in MotW? Yes, but I will leave that to that game’s DM because sometimes it’s better not to know.)
But he wanted more. We continued to cherry pick classic episodes -- “The Wish,” “Doppelgangland,” “Band Candy.” We waited patiently for him to get bored with this hokey show that was forcing him to learn about historical concepts like “midseason replacements” and, in fact, the entire idea of TV seasons that are linked to times of the year and the week. The earthling continued to choose Buffy over all other options when it was TV watching time.
After “Band Candy,” it seemed only reasonable to show him “Halloween.” As he waited through the FBI warning, something he does not typically experience before shows, he said thoughtfully, “Is Halloween in Sunnydale like the Christmas Truce in WWI? Do the vampires all stay home? No killing on Halloween?”
And it was at that point I realized where we were. The earthling had switched modes. He was not just watching TV. He was absorbing it. He was thinking about the show when it wasn’t on. He was analyzing the tiny scraps of lore he had from this out of order trawl through the highlights and he was trying to construct a narrative and rules and make sense of it all. He was developing ideas about what he wanted to happen.
He was becoming ... fannish. About Buffy. In 2023.
Best Beloved and I decided we’d need to go back in time. Since we were watching “Halloween” at that point, we went back to the episode that explained who the hell Ethan Rayne and Ripper were, “The Dark Age.” We’ve been marching forward ever since, watching episodes we barely remember and even episodes we’d love to forget. We just finished “Helpless,” and I think it’s time to jot down some notes on this whole Buffy-earthling situation.
The earthling’s overall summary of Buffy at this point: “It’s a good show. I like the worldbuilding, even though it seems like a lot of it was just kind of made up in the moment, but that’s kind of good, because you can do stuff with the holes in worldbuilding. I like how it’s integrated with the real world. Kind of the real world, anyway.” (Me to myself, in my own head: His obsessive love of Neverwhere should probably have prepared you for this burgeoning love of urban fantasy.) “It’s -- I don’t want to say of its time, because I don’t think that time was like that, either. How can it be in Southern California and have all these white people and be so separate from everywhere else? But it’s definitely not the world we live in anymore. It’s interesting, though. And I like the writing. The dialogue is really good a lot of the time.”
He also said, “It seems like they -- recycle stuff. Like they just keep redoing the same thing over and over. The world is always about to end, there’s always something making it hard for Buffy to do her job, someone is always having romantic trouble.” So that’s a big mission success on explaining monster of the week shows, anyway!
He pretty much hates all the romance except Willow/Tara, which so far he’s only encountered in “Hush.” At one point, after an extended Angel/Buffy scene that bored the shit out of him, he said, “If Willow and Tara don’t get AT LEAST this much kissing time, I am going to be really mad.”
This forced a quick digression on the History of Queerness on TV. (Okay, it wasn’t quick.) He was, as he himself predicted, mad. (“I don’t care if it was a step forward for the time period. The world shouldn’t be like that!”)
Specifically, he hates Buffy/Angel, partly because he doesn’t like Angel very much. His description of Angel: “He’s boring and he’s always depressed. He never does anything. There you go.” He does like Angelus, though: “He’s having fun and doing stuff. I like that.”
(I would have pointed out to him that doing nothing is significantly better than doing evil, but, well, I try to steer clear of hypocrisy in parenting, and I enjoy the heck out of Angelus, too.)
But he also doesn’t like Buffy/Angel because, in his own words:
- “He’s too old for her!”
- “They’re supposed to be enemies!”
- “I get that it’s all tragic and stuff but it’s just not very interesting. Sometimes you have to get over yourself.”
At this point, I warned him that she also dates Spike, and he said, “Well, that’s a waste of a good character.” (Good work alienating fans of two of the main ships, earthling!)
He loves Willow, Oz, and Giles, plus, on the bad side, Angelus, the Mayor, Ethan Rayne, the Gentlemen, and Spike. He also likes vampire Willow and vampire Xander. “Why don’t we ever get to see Giles as a vampire?” he asked me once.
“Because the world would end,” I told him.
“You know that just makes me want to see it more,” he said.
He’s kind of okay with Willow/Oz, because that ship involves two of his favorite characters, but mostly he’s patiently waiting for Willow/Tara to arrive. (Are we going to continue past season four? Uhhhhhh well we’ve never done that before, so: I hope not. For one thing, the way Willow/Tara turns out is not going to make him happy. Also, this is already more Buffy than I’ve ever seen. If we don't stop soon, I'm going to end up writing fic for it.)
Probably the most surprising thing to me so far is that his favorite episodes are largely the major plot arc ones. He loved “Passion” and “Innocence” and “Becoming” (both parts), all episodes BB and I kind of winced our way through. He likes the big dramas more than the self-contained comedies, which I guess is developmentally on target. (It is really weird, let me note, watching this show with a kid who is almost 15. Specifically, it’s weird to remember that the characters are supposed to be -- well, roughly his age.)
I’m waiting to see how he takes the Faith arc that is coming up. He’s got no spoilers at all for it.
And that’s the weirdest thing about this. I can’t predict how he’ll react, because the stuff I remember as being a big deal often isn’t to him. Like, I remember hearts and friendships breaking over Xander’s Lie. His reaction to it? Balanced and measured and understated. It’s like watching Buffy in a world where no one else is. Because, I suppose, that’s what we’re actually doing.
Anyway. If anyone wants to join us, we’re watching “Bad Girls” next. Wish us luck!
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