The Animal Family*, BtVS, life lesson

[oiran]

Exciting day at the vet's office. My dog is officially fat! And I'm adopting a pair of "orphan" parakeets. Which means I'll be spamming you with photos of every single pet sooner rather than later. This will bring us up to five birds and proves I do have a maternal instinct, although it's not stimulated at all by my own species.

~~~

So we're watching S5 Buffy, and...fuck: more Riley. He's nice. He loves Buffy. He's stubborn and has a bit of a temper, but nothing relationship-damaging. He looks like Howdy Doody (with really nice arms), but that's not necessarily terrible. Still, I hate him. I feel bad about it, but I keep hoping he'll DIE, DIE, DIE. I know enough about the future of the show and upcoming relationships that I'm aware he will vacate the boyfriend position eventually, but it can't be soon enough for me. Riley is making me gleefully anticipate proof of the adage "nice guys finish last." Why does this character vex and annoy me so? Well, I do have some theories, but I'm resisting letting Riley take over my brain even temporarily. I resent his very existence. When Riley episodes were airing, did people mostly love or hate him? FWIW, Mr. Glove hates him, too.

~~~

Life lesson: Pride goeth before a fall. Sprinkle hubris on top. And impatience...aaaaand a little more. Ignore for awhile, then serve cold.

I am of the opinion that more things should "goeth," rather than just "go." It's jauntier, somehow.

~~~
*the title of a book by Randall Jarrell, which I read as a child and continue to hold onto as an example of perfection on a number of fronts

Comments

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I think for many of us, Riley was the boyfriend we didn't appreciate until he was gone and we moved on to ... other things ... which made us appreciate Riley. But too late. 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.

I think, too, watching the DVDs is like cheating because you can mainline the seasons instead of feeling the pain spread out over 9 months like in real time LOL. So you don't have the same amount of time to love, hate, or otherwise feel for the characters and situations.

Re:

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

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.