From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V4 #79 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Sunday, May 26 2002 Volume 04 : Number 079 Today's Subjects: ----------------- b/recurrence in story arcs [Todd Huff ] Re: b/recurrence in story arcs ["David S. Bratman" Subject: b/recurrence in story arcs http://www.buffyformula.com/ This is a detailed look at repeated patterns in seasonal story arcs. A lot of food for thought here. Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 19:34:13 -0700 From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: b/recurrence in story arcs At 10:18 AM 5/25/2002 , Todd wrote: >http://www.buffyformula.com/ > >This is a detailed look at repeated patterns in >seasonal story arcs. A lot of food for thought here. Yes, very interesting. Thanks for mentioning it. Some comments on the site itself: >Joss & Company, however unintentional, seem to have developed a pattern >for seasonal story arcs. And how unintentional is it? That's a very interesting question. I'd be more relieved if it were intentional, because that'd mean they're deploying it with some subtlety. >The main theme of the Buffy Formula is one of misdirection, usually in >terms of who is the 'Big Bad' for the season. But not complete subtlety, as seen in the fan community's awareness of that misdirection, a lesson learned, if not earlier, after the death of Mr. Trick. The assumption this year that the Nemesises couldn't be the Big Bad, because they were too obvious, is akin to the mystery story convention that it's too obvious if the butler did it. (I've read one mystery in which a character _named_ Butler did it, a twist noted by other characters!) >The first half, introduces us to what we would assume is the 'Big Bad' for >the season. That character(s) is developed for most of the first half of >the season. They don't have to be introduced in the first episode of the >season. They usually appear around Episode Three, with their real motives >becoming apparent around Episode Seven. This character(s), who I will >refer to as the 'Little Bad' A very useful concept. >In Season Five, the show departed from the Formula. ... There are >stretches that would make the Formula work, for example if we considered >Dawn to be the 'Little Bad'. ... Unfortunately, it is a complete and total >stretch. So it is. Two points to the author for resisting the temptation to run with it. >The flaw in Season Five isn't in the writing, it's in the method of >delivery. The twenty-two episodes that comprised Season Five aired over an >eight month period, which is standard network practice. However, hardly >any show on television juggles as many story arcs and plot points as >Buffy. ... When seen in succession, the arcs become clearer and begin to >form a very cohesive whole. Shown in chunks, with gaps of up to a month in >between episodes, some of the story gets lost. Another good point. I've found the same thing when reading graphic novels in successive comic-book sized installments. It works much better when you can read the whole thing at once. The question I wonder is - who would be willing and have the time to sit down and watch a whole season of BTVS in a week, except for someone who's already seen it? There are a couple reading diaries online, of people who were reading _The Lord of the Rings_ for the first time, and wrote their comments chapter by chapter. I've noticed some of the same phenomenon here. >If we look at Season One and extrapolate what might have been if it had >been a full season, there is evidence that suggests that the Formula may >have been at work there. The Master would have been killed, with the >Anointed One becoming the 'Big Bad'. Wasn't there a suspicion, among viewers at the beginning of Season 2, that the Annoying One would indeed become a Big Bad? His summary disposal is, more than the crippling of Spike, the surprising demise in the earlier course of the season. Could an argument be made that he, rather than Spike and Dru, is the Little Bad of Season 2? He's certainly little enough. Perhaps the answer to the question has to be no, but the formula isn't exact, thank goodness. I do not tend to think along this writer's speculation lines when imagining a full-length Season 1. Rather than continuing along an alternative track after the death of the Master (a Little Bad in that case), I would see more fill-in episodes, possibly establishing some other Little Bad. >Every season, there is a death that has far-ranging repercussions. >7 Season Two: Jenny Calendar >7 Season Three: Deputy Mayor Finch >7 Season Four: Professor Walsh >7 Season Five: Joyce Summers >7 Season Six: Tara What's particularly interesting about this list, remembering reactions to them, is that the deaths of Joyce and Tara are much more close to home than any other death since Jenny's. We barely knew Allan, and Maggie wasn't much of a sympathetic character. Jenny's death was an early (relatively) sign that BTVS would play tough, so the succeeding deaths perhaps shouldn't have been as much of surprises as they've been. ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V4 #79 ****************************