Azura Skye's performance was amazing. Like the Buffybot, Cassie could have gone wrong in so many ways and ended up being so RIGHT. I've rewatched Help and sobbed when she's explaining to Buffy that she can't help her but she appreciates it anyway. And when Buffy is crouched over her body at the end. (TELL ME AGAIN BUFFY IS A CLOSED-OFF BITCH Y'ALL.)
The way they connected so immediately, the way she fought so hard... It's actually more painful to think about it in that light
I can go either way on this (I tend to think of Dawn as "omnisexual" or "whatever no big deal" and I've shipped her post-series with Faith in my own writing.) I think it's tragic whether we see them as friends or potential partners who never were. (And in friendships I think there is often, initially, an amount of "crushing" that goes on.) But, Dawn/Cassie? I'd never thought of that before and now I WANT THIS FIC. THIS MUST HAPPEN. If Buffy and Cassie relate as girls who "don't have a future" because they are fated to die young (so they think), so would she and Dawn re: her experience in S5. And OMG Cassie and Dawn going to the dance together? YES PLEASE.
did she get a last name?
According to imdb she was billed as "Sheila Martini" which sounds just stupid enough to be real. (Really Joss? Not only is she a bad girl compared to the golden girl Buffy because she's sexually active - Xander calls her a slut - and because she's working class, but we HAVE to tack on the implication of alcholism there as well?)
I just have a LOT of feelings about Sheila and I'm too chicken-shit to put them up here in a journal post. I remember watching School Hard and thinking, well if I wasn't aware of Joss' regressive madonna/whore concepts of female sexuality before I am now. And then looking back at screencaps and rewatching the ep and remembering that she's kidnapped, tied up and tossed in a corner of Spike and Dru's bedroom until he takes her out for Dru to "eat" and the poor girl is TERRIFIED. I know horror movies are full of those sort of tropes (teen sex = death and punishment) but it's not being subverted or questioned here at all.
Then the claims that a certain blond vampire *ahem* would never torture anyone, etc don't sit well with me because we do see the evidence. what Sheila endures is psychological torture at the very least, possibly physical because she was overpowered, tied up and gagged. Sheila is a reminder that vampires are MONSTERS, not cuddly pets. But she's a disposable plot device and thus completely forgotten. Even I'd forgotten about her until I was having a conversation with itsnotmymind a few months back.
I think I'd have liked a little more of Sunday than a lot of the Initiative arc, to be honest, because it was so heavy handed, and she slipped in so well - we still remember her
YES. She reminds me a little of other characters who reflect who Buffy once was in Hemery High, or are an inversion of Buffy (esp. Cordy & Glory). Sunday is the leader of her own little "gang" as Buffy is with the SG and was back when she was a "mean girl".
but Seth Green leaving kind of killed that.
Pun intended? I've read that Joss was planning on killing off Oz in S4 so Willow could go scary-veiny anyway. WHY couldn't Seth have stayed a little longer if he was going to be killed off anyway? Veruca could have been the one who killed him, or the Initiative. And then Tara could have LIVED, damnit! (Think about it - Giles finally spirits Willow away to the coven where she meets another young, gentle witch.) Or they could have shipped Willow and Riley because they totally had chemistry, killed him off and avoided the ugliness of cheating on Buffy; then introduced Tara. It could've been perfect. Birds, stone.
no subject
The way they connected so immediately, the way she fought so hard... It's actually more painful to think about it in that light
I can go either way on this (I tend to think of Dawn as "omnisexual" or "whatever no big deal" and I've shipped her post-series with Faith in my own writing.) I think it's tragic whether we see them as friends or potential partners who never were. (And in friendships I think there is often, initially, an amount of "crushing" that goes on.) But, Dawn/Cassie? I'd never thought of that before and now I WANT THIS FIC. THIS MUST HAPPEN. If Buffy and Cassie relate as girls who "don't have a future" because they are fated to die young (so they think), so would she and Dawn re: her experience in S5. And OMG Cassie and Dawn going to the dance together? YES PLEASE.
did she get a last name?
According to imdb she was billed as "Sheila Martini" which sounds just stupid enough to be real. (Really Joss? Not only is she a bad girl compared to the golden girl Buffy because she's sexually active - Xander calls her a slut - and because she's working class, but we HAVE to tack on the implication of alcholism there as well?)
I just have a LOT of feelings about Sheila and I'm too chicken-shit to put them up here in a journal post. I remember watching School Hard and thinking, well if I wasn't aware of Joss' regressive madonna/whore concepts of female sexuality before I am now. And then looking back at screencaps and rewatching the ep and remembering that she's kidnapped, tied up and tossed in a corner of Spike and Dru's bedroom until he takes her out for Dru to "eat" and the poor girl is TERRIFIED. I know horror movies are full of those sort of tropes (teen sex = death and punishment) but it's not being subverted or questioned here at all.
Then the claims that a certain blond vampire *ahem* would never torture anyone, etc don't sit well with me because we do see the evidence. what Sheila endures is psychological torture at the very least, possibly physical because she was overpowered, tied up and gagged. Sheila is a reminder that vampires are MONSTERS, not cuddly pets. But she's a disposable plot device and thus completely forgotten. Even I'd forgotten about her until I was having a conversation with
I think I'd have liked a little more of Sunday than a lot of the Initiative arc, to be honest, because it was so heavy handed, and she slipped in so well - we still remember her
YES. She reminds me a little of other characters who reflect who Buffy once was in Hemery High, or are an inversion of Buffy (esp. Cordy & Glory). Sunday is the leader of her own little "gang" as Buffy is with the SG and was back when she was a "mean girl".
but Seth Green leaving kind of killed that.
Pun intended? I've read that Joss was planning on killing off Oz in S4 so Willow could go scary-veiny anyway. WHY couldn't Seth have stayed a little longer if he was going to be killed off anyway? Veruca could have been the one who killed him, or the Initiative. And then Tara could have LIVED, damnit! (Think about it - Giles finally spirits Willow away to the coven where she meets another young, gentle witch.) Or they could have shipped Willow and Riley because they totally had chemistry, killed him off and avoided the ugliness of cheating on Buffy; then introduced Tara. It could've been perfect. Birds, stone.
she's never "my" Willow again
I have issues with the Snark Squad girls take on Willow in S7 for this very reason. They go along with the story's romantic tragic version of "poor Willow". And the person who suffers the most in the long run for it at least in fandom is...Kennedy. http://fandomforequality.com/2014/01/31/ladies-who-need-more-love-kennedy-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/
And maybe that's the best legacy we ever could had hoped for.
Bringing it back round to the positive? You're a goddess.