Now we look back on him with fondness, as of the boy next door, but we don't want him to come back and be our boyfriend again. We just appreciate him for what he was, when he was.
That is a very lovely way of putting it. I will probably not hate him one of these days, as I feel that it is truly unfair of me to do so in the first place.
The Mr. and I keep asking each other why we weren't watching Buffy when it was airing, and a lot of it probably had to do with a general indifference to TV at the time the series started. Watching the DVDs has made a big difference in our response, I think. Where people complain about the series going downhill after S3 for a number of reasons, the Mr. and I are seeing the focus change, but in such a compressed timeframe, we don't really have time to get tetchy about it. We're just enjoying the journey and not feeling bothered that it's not like what's come before. So in that way, I think the compressed schedule might be better.
However, there are a few peripheral characters that seem to lead big, busy lives in fanfic (from what I'm told--I'm not reading Buffy fic) who passed us by like blips. Ethan, for instance. I might not have noticed him at all, had there not been people on LJ waxing rhapsodic about his potential. If we'd not seen him come and go so quickly, I might "get" what fans like about the character.
Re:
That is a very lovely way of putting it. I will probably not hate him one of these days, as I feel that it is truly unfair of me to do so in the first place.
The Mr. and I keep asking each other why we weren't watching Buffy when it was airing, and a lot of it probably had to do with a general indifference to TV at the time the series started. Watching the DVDs has made a big difference in our response, I think. Where people complain about the series going downhill after S3 for a number of reasons, the Mr. and I are seeing the focus change, but in such a compressed timeframe, we don't really have time to get tetchy about it. We're just enjoying the journey and not feeling bothered that it's not like what's come before. So in that way, I think the compressed schedule might be better.
However, there are a few peripheral characters that seem to lead big, busy lives in fanfic (from what I'm told--I'm not reading Buffy fic) who passed us by like blips. Ethan, for instance. I might not have noticed him at all, had there not been people on LJ waxing rhapsodic about his potential. If we'd not seen him come and go so quickly, I might "get" what fans like about the character.