Maybe you would like the comics for the fact that *spoiler* Angel snaps Giles' neck in S8. And then he comes back in the Angel and Faith and now the Buffy S10 title as a 12 year old. (Don't try to understand, you'll only be frustrated trust me.)
that is when you stick by things .... not leave people to "grow up".
Which makes me wonder about his upbringing - I think he only mentions his family once, very early in the series, and there's no sense of affection or warmth, only duty. And speaking of, whither thou Hank Summers? His child is "difficult" so he goes off and sucks his psychological thumb by abandoning her? Or what about Riley ("what about my needs?") Finn? I know some fans hate that pattern in the show but for me? Welcome to my world because that has been my experience.
One of the things that connects these to my mind is the fact that in each instance the men have the resources that allow them to walk away - income, home, a safety net. They have the ability to walk away even in the financial sense. Buffy doesn't. Men can walk away and it's accepted. A woman who "abandons" her duties or leaves her children, even for the best reasons and in the best care (knowing she can't etc) is seen as less-than at best or monstrous at worst.
but I do wonder when all she had been though were crash back ... and then the sadness of season 6 would return, as she hadn't had the support at that time ???
That is a really excellent point and the answer to that IMO is "yes of course" - at least until she's gotten a ton of therapy and time and space to work through her issues, to just breathe.(Why are there no Buffy in therapy post series fics? Unless it's Buffy grieving over Spike fics but what about the wider picture?)
I'm not sure if it would return to the same intensity, it would depend partly on her situation in life at the time. But the pattern is there. (I wonder about Hank - he deals with stress by abandoning his children and screaming at his wife; Joyce deals by a combination of silence, denial and alcohol (Dead Man's Party). Not really a picture of mental health, the Summers family.
It's part of my issue with As You Were and why the notion of Riley as the picture of mental health is such a laugh He's done absolutely zero to deal with his issues, went running back to the initiative and his old hero solider persona (and support system which was based on lies and deceptions to begin with), married Sam within a year of leaving Buffy, etc (velvetwhip covers this ground admirably in her fic "Civilian"). And yet we're supposed to see him as nicely sorted when he returns? I think not.
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that is when you stick by things .... not leave people to "grow up".
Which makes me wonder about his upbringing - I think he only mentions his family once, very early in the series, and there's no sense of affection or warmth, only duty. And speaking of, whither thou Hank Summers? His child is "difficult" so he goes off and sucks his psychological thumb by abandoning her? Or what about Riley ("what about my needs?") Finn? I know some fans hate that pattern in the show but for me? Welcome to my world because that has been my experience.
One of the things that connects these to my mind is the fact that in each instance the men have the resources that allow them to walk away - income, home, a safety net. They have the ability to walk away even in the financial sense. Buffy doesn't. Men can walk away and it's accepted. A woman who "abandons" her duties or leaves her children, even for the best reasons and in the best care (knowing she can't etc) is seen as less-than at best or monstrous at worst.
but I do wonder when all she had been though were crash back ... and then the sadness of season 6 would return, as she hadn't had the support at that time ???
That is a really excellent point and the answer to that IMO is "yes of course" - at least until she's gotten a ton of therapy and time and space to work through her issues, to just breathe.(Why are there no Buffy in therapy post series fics? Unless it's Buffy grieving over Spike fics but what about the wider picture?)
I'm not sure if it would return to the same intensity, it would depend partly on her situation in life at the time. But the pattern is there. (I wonder about Hank - he deals with stress by abandoning his children and screaming at his wife; Joyce deals by a combination of silence, denial and alcohol (Dead Man's Party). Not really a picture of mental health, the Summers family.
It's part of my issue with As You Were and why the notion of Riley as the picture of mental health is such a laugh He's done absolutely zero to deal with his issues, went running back to the initiative and his old hero solider persona (and support system which was based on lies and deceptions to begin with), married Sam within a year of leaving Buffy, etc (velvetwhip covers this ground admirably in her fic "Civilian"). And yet we're supposed to see him as nicely sorted when he returns? I think not.