BtVS S8.22 Swell

[hazelk]

Gotta love a monster of the month with biology. This one was a neotonous mammal, a potty mouthed slime mould, at least one of the stages of alien and if you cut it, did it not spill guts everywhere. Extra points for sucking out its victims from the inside, turning every last man of them into a dried prune or a scrotum with red eye. No, I don’t want one for Christmas.

I want a Satsu for Christmas, who survived not only the Swell but the curse of DeKnight and was sexy and bratty and frighteningly competent and witty even when possessed. Mmm babies. Mmm backstory. Also at this point the series needs a reminder that demons, at least some demons, are not the last oppressed minority (that would be white SFF writers) but expressions of the unfettered id.

Which would be Twilight’s id and that id has had definite woman issues both from his own mouth and from the company he keeps. Voll’s denial in the TLWH always gets brought up at this point but it came just a few lines after the reference to Buffy’s spawn and if that’s not a gendered insult I don’t know how much more biological you can get.

What lurks below, what would vampires want with a submarine? I have a feeling that that little throwaway may be crucial. The world has changed the Slayers are organizing and so are the vamps, there’s a war brewing and Twilight (as he said he would) is playing both sides against the middle, using their strengths against them. Buffy tells Satsu they have to stop being what they are, hold back, don’t speak up, go shopping not submarine hopping. It’s eminently sensible in the circumstances. If only it didn’t come so soon after Vampy-Cat-Satsu’s call to just be normal girls.

Comments

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I think it has already although is that just a Spike fan thing? Maybe it's a chicken and egg situation. Vampires/aliens = misunderstood woobie minority predates Spike as a popular storytelling trope, (which I've always hated ever since first being exposed to it on some old Star Trek episode). But I can see how those who it appeals to might gravitate towards Spike in Buffy fandom.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

My impression is that most people who see any inherently- evil species in a fantasy work as a nasty sign of conscious or subconscious racism gave up on Buffy as soon as it started, but that among people who watched Buffy at length the opinion is chiefly found in the kind of Spuffy shippers who have been yelling their hate for Buffy ever since it began to be clear around mid-S6 that ME did not share their reading of the characters.