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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 13:30:07 GMT -5
Yeah, but "Wrecked" for me is where they changed the story of Willow from "Drunk on power" to "Magic addiction". Buffy and Spike started the "I don't like you. I don't want you. Sleep with me now. God I hate you" two step that went on for far longer than was needed. It also ensured that Xander and Anya's storyline was never really gotten into and dawn's kleptomania was pretty much forgotten about. For what it showed, what it started and what it omitted, "Wrecked" wins the jump the shark title for me.
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xaphania
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Post by xaphania on Jun 9, 2009 13:37:42 GMT -5
I love season six. I don't really have much to say apart from that. There were high points, there were low points, but on the whole I like it.
I prefer the earlier and later parts of the season (for some reason I tend to split it up into disks lol so I prefer disks 1-2 and 5-6) but still, the other disks have some great episodes. I think Dead Things is one of my all time favourites.
I do think there were lots of little things they could have done differently in this season, but I still really enjoyed it.
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Post by VampSlayer on Jun 9, 2009 13:41:50 GMT -5
Wow, lol. I make myself laugh.  Whe I saw the title of this topic I went, "Who the f*ck is bashing my favorite season?! And then saying it is as bad as Twilight?! Twilight is was worse!"  But, anyways, I love season 6, it is my favorite season.  |
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 13:46:47 GMT -5
If we all thought and felt the same way, VampSlayer, it would be a very boring world.
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Post by henzINNIT on Jun 9, 2009 14:11:51 GMT -5
Yeah, but "Wrecked" for me is where they changed the story of Willow from "Drunk on power" to "Magic addiction". Buffy and Spike started the "I don't like you. I don't want you. Sleep with me now. God I hate you" two step that went on for far longer than was needed. It also ensured that Xander and Anya's storyline was never really gotten into and dawn's kleptomania was pretty much forgotten about. For what it showed, what it started and what it omitted, "Wrecked" wins the jump the shark title for me. Yeah, Wrecked is the turning point. I blamed Smashed too, but it didn't ruin anything, it just got the ball rolling. |
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 15:02:13 GMT -5
We will just have to agree to differ on that one evilwillow. Done awhole section on this threead I think on whether it was addiction before Wrecked or not and am not gonna go through that again  Suffice as to say, I obviously disagree. |
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 15:10:17 GMT -5
I know, such a shock! LOL |
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Post by henzINNIT on Jun 9, 2009 15:12:28 GMT -5
And the Magical addiction started before Wrecked Please elaborate. |
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xaphania
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Post by xaphania on Jun 9, 2009 15:49:39 GMT -5
I think Willow's addiction to magic began before Wrecked, too - if you say that her addiction was using magic for unnecessary tasks (eg. decorations for Xander and Anya's party) or using magic to fix things to her liking (the forgetting spell in Tabula Rasa). I think this is a case of her being addicted to the power of magic.
The addiction was taken to another level when she started seeing Rack, and this was an addiction to the magic itself, to the high she got off it.
I would have preferred if they'd kept to the first one - the idea that the power she got from the magic was her addiction, and not the high she got from being infused with Rack's magicks.
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 15:59:51 GMT -5
Now that's an interesting way of viewing it xaphinia. Your view of the addiction tothe power of magic. Similar to what I've been saying about ehr being "Drunk on power". Where I disagree with some of the posters here is that I don't think the "next stage", the addiction to magic as a substance, was a natural progression of the storyline. For me, it was a tangent and I agree they should ahve stayed with the original road. But I've mentioned a lot of this already.
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xaphania
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Post by xaphania on Jun 9, 2009 16:09:46 GMT -5
I would definitely have preferred if they had carried on with the idea that it was the power and all that she could do with magic that Willow was addicted to, and not the highs she got from Rack... that would have been a natural progression of what we'd seen in the first few episodes of season six, and in the previous seasons.
They probably went with the magic=drugs addiction plotline so that in the final few episodes Willow could get injected with a shot of magic (by draining Rack) and go crazy enough to want to destroy the world.
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 16:14:51 GMT -5
See, that is part of what I've been saying (or possibly ranting). The last few episodes looked less like a natural story progression and more a series of hackneyed set pieces sdeisgned to give the audience a bigger, badder Willow than ever before.
Her being drunk on power would ahve made for a different season, undoubtedly. Better season? In terms of excitement maybe not but in terms fo consistencies and dramatic flow I would say more than likely.
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Post by henzINNIT on Jun 9, 2009 16:19:28 GMT -5
xanphania has nailed exactly where the conflict comes in between the people who dig the druggy angle and those who don't.
Me...I do think there was a dependancy before Wrecked, but the magic wasn't a corrupting force... and that's key. Willow was addicted to using her gift, but the magic itself wasn't addictive. The internal darkness is what comes out. Making the magic give her some kind of high makes her a victim to its influence, and takes that darkness away.
It's kind of like Gunn's upgrade in Season 5, where it was played as if something had changed him, but it eventually was having the gift itself that corrupted the man.
AK, spot on. Power addicted would have likely been less explosive, but far more grown into the character. It would have been terrifying to see how dark Willow would get if they hadn't puss'd out.
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 16:27:42 GMT -5
Yeah, I really do think they wimped out, going for style over substance.
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Post by henzINNIT on Jun 9, 2009 16:38:35 GMT -5
Maybe they felt they'd be taking Willow down a path too dark for the character, she might be a lot less sympathetic in that incarnation. I find it far more offensive to victimise her again though, especially after magic played as a metaphor for her lesbian love in season 4.
I will always prefer season 6 as notes for season 7 lol. I remember what I need for it to makes sense, and try to forget how disappointing it played out.
What kind of changes would you apply to season 6 then?
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 16:41:12 GMT -5
I personally would have never have changed Willow's journey from drunk on power to magic addiction. But IF I was going to make that switch, I would ahve gon ethe whole hog. if they couldn't do a story about the horrors of addiction properly because it was Willow, then they shouldn't have done it. I wrote my own season 6, from "Wrecked", as how I would ahve worked the magic addiction. Its far from perfect, as its a very rough draft, but it at least hints at the idea that there was more than one way for a magic addiction storyline to go.
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 16:48:20 GMT -5
I think it was the writers reaching. Setting their little bread crumbs to justify their storyline but as I don't think their storyline was a goer from the start, it didn't ring true with me.
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Post by ambersknight on Jun 9, 2009 16:53:12 GMT -5
A recovery that was started before they'd even got the addiction story started (In my opinion, I know others ehre differ as to when the addiction storyline started) so it just seemed like lip service.
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Post by henzINNIT on Jun 9, 2009 16:56:31 GMT -5
Dark Magics were mentioned before, but there was never any implication that they'd have negative effects that were similar to drug abuse, as far as I can remember.
I can even see a type of addiction growing from the use of those dark powers. In time, I think Willow could have succumbed to something like that; but Wrecked was a sudden jump into... well drugs. It wasn't even dark magic, it was heroin.
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xaphania
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Post by xaphania on Jun 9, 2009 17:05:19 GMT -5
One of the other instances where dark magicks were referenced was back in season 2, when we saw Giles in his Ripper days. I've not watched that episode for a long time, so I can't quite remember the ins and outs so:
Was that shown to be similar to a drug addiction (ie. getting high off it)? Or was it just an addiction to the darkness of the magicks being used (summoning Eyghon etc.).
So I think conceivably the writers could have gone ahead with Willow being addicted to the darkness, the power the magic gave her as opposed to the high she got from Rack.
I have no clue if I'm making sense ;D
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