From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V5 #20 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Saturday, January 25 2003 Volume 05 : Number 020 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: b/potential [skroupa@attbi.com] Re: b/potential [Joseph Zitt ] Re: b/potential [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 16:36:51 +0000 From: skroupa@attbi.com Subject: Re: b/potential Don, I'm with you all the way! I _loved_ this episode and I thought the closing moments were some of the best in this season. I didn't find it heavy-handed and I was fooled until the end. Okay, I better drop down for one quick spoiler... > I start from the position that "Potential" (Tuesday's =Buffy=) was a > swell episode; but I've seen dissenting opinions in several quarters, so now I > feel challenged to explain said position. down... down.... Perhaps Xander's ability to see and notice things may help Dawn at the end if she has to choose between her mother (or the First pretending to be her mother) and Buffy, just as Xander saved the day last season by being able to see and love Willow. Sue ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 12:43:08 -0800 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: b/potential On Fri, 24 Jan 2003 16:36:51 +0000 skroupa@attbi.com wrote: > Okay, I better drop down for one quick spoiler... > > > > > down... > > > > > > > > down.... > > > (like a steed, I have speed...) > > > > > > > > Perhaps Xander's ability to see and notice things may help Dawn at the > end if she has to choose between her mother (or the First pretending > to be her mother) and Buffy, just as Xander saved the day last season > by being able to see and love Willow. My favorite idea for an ending to the series is that everything cancels out and magic, vampires, slayerage, etc, no longer work -- leaving Xander as the one person who can really cope with real world stuff, and as the one who will guide the others in coping. - -- | jzitt@josephzitt.com http://www.josephzitt.com/ | | GPG: A4224EFA http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt/ | | == New book: Surprise Me with Beauty: the Music of Human Systems == | | Comma / Gray Code / VoiceWAVE Silence: the John Cage Discussion List | ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 23:41:39 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: b/potential Hi, Don posted: >I start from the position that "Potential" (Tuesday's =Buffy=) was a >swell episode; but I've seen dissenting opinions in several quarters, so now I >feel challenged to explain said position. Thank you -- your comments helped change my dissent to appreciation. :) >I suppose > >we could > >do with > >some spoiler > >=SPACE= > >Space > >space.... > >(does that give the typographical impression of an echo? OK, maybe not.) Sure, why not? :) >I couldn't agree less. I thought it was a lovely, lovely scene which >worked on all kinds of levels. This was the only part of the episode that really worked for me as I was first watching it. It was a touching, poignant scene that showed us a lot about both characters. Nicely acted, too. >Also, the scene really resonated because we have an established, longtime >warm regard between Dawn and Xander. Which now is one step solider yet. Yes. Xander is the big brother Dawn never had, and Dawn is the little sister Xander never had. >And the first >part of the last scene, the Potentials aftermath discussion, giving each >other strokes and making sure Amanda felt included (notice how Kennedy was >all touchy-feely with her?) Yes. One wonders if she's going to leave Willow alone now. >Here's an issue: someone complained that Buffy and Spike shutting up the >Potentials with a vampire was too much like the Cruciamentum in >"Helpless": how could Buffy do that? A point worth pondering. I was thinking the exact same thing. >But think of >it this way: in "Helpless" Buffy was artificially weakened (to human >average or maybe less), solo, and (supposed to be) unarmed. In the present >case, the script made the point of having Buffy say, earlier, that the >reason the four were Potentials was that they had =some= strength, and >skill, and intuition (though not as much as they'd have if they were >Called); also, they'd had a little training, both before and since they >arrived in Sunnydale; they were all well-armed; and they had a four-to-one >advantage. Yes, it was probably a risk to endanger the few Potentials >left; but I think it was less of a risk than it seemed. That makes sense. Buffy had also earlier encouraged them to use their instincts (something which we saw Amanda do in the school). I wasn't really all that surprised to see that they'd all survived. >Another gripe from elsewhere: how could Dawn be =so stupid= as to go off >by herself at night, and even worse, decide to go, unarmed, after a >vampire? In a vacuum, that's a fair question. However, her behavior is >=entirely in character=. How many times has she gone out her window on her >own at night? (I've lost count.) True ... but since at the time she thought she was a Potential, she *has* to have known that the Bringers would be lurking out there waiting for her, particularly since they had just been discussing the Bringers downstairs. That was what I found totally out of character. Dawn has done some pretty stupid things, but never that blatantly dumb. Considering the circumstances it was way too stupid for her to ignore that little detail. I didn't buy it. >Now for some minor points. I thought it was amusing that the Potentials >picked up the vibe between Buffy and Spike (especially the traded looks >about Spike's "comfy" crypt); and that one of them wondered if Buffy had >dated Clem, too! (Fun to see Clem again.) Oh, yes! I was stunned and happy to learn that Clem has a TiVo. But I was also really interested to see his scary face. We haven't seen that before, have we?? >An unusual instance of Buffy self-knowledge: "Oh, goody. Rapt attention. I >love that =so= much." Duh! I thought that comment was rather dripping with sarcasm, myself ... >Willow on the chrysales (I =think= that's the plural): "butterfly >transformer pods." Ah, but if she had really paid attention in Latin class she wouldn't have stumbled over that at all. :) >Willow on Dawn and Buffy: they "share the same blood or whatever." Anya: >"Never got that." (Me either.) Once again, Anya plays the role of the Greek Chorus. (Has she been in an episode where she *hasn't* done that?) >There was someone who referred to Dawn being a Potential then not as "bait >and switch." I was glad when she turned out not to be the Potential -- that would just have been *too* obvious. I was waiting to find out who the real Potential would turn out to be. >I didn't think so; I had been so sure Dawn probably was that >I said so to the TV when Dawn said "It could be anybody!" I was really >surprised when it was Amanda instead. I figured it was her when she first showed up in Buffy's "office". Not sure why, but it just jumped out at me when she said that thing about people thinking she was weird. >(Could anybody tell if Amanda was >visible through the glass door panels when Dawn crashed against it?) I just re-watched it, and you can't see anything through the door windows. You can clearly see the yellow ball going through Dawn and then out through the door, though. >and Kennedy (here's >the surprise) 19. So she =is= significantly older than the others, which >explains a lot. Ah, ok. Not so much of an age difference between her and Willow, then. But definitely one between her and Amanda, if indeed one can read anything into how Kennedy was acting toward Amanda at the very end. >Also, there are two stage directions being =very clear= that Giles cannot >touch anything or anyone. Not our imagination. Hmmmmmmmm ... ============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ============================================== Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://muzak.smoe.org NEXT UP: Holly Figueroa, 1/26/03 ============================================== ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V5 #20 ****************************