(no subject)

[shapinglight]

This excerpt from Joss's The Write Environment DVD cheered me up no end. Thank you so much to icafreak for transcribing it and for unflocking her post so we can all read it.

Pity the DVD's not available on Amazon.co.uk.

Comments

[shapinglight]

What made me happy too, was the idea that "the character was good even when he was bad".

I agree. I think this is the bit I liked best - along with the confirmation of Spike wanting a soul.

Though apparently, even hearing Joss himself say it isn't enough for some people. They still say it's a retcon.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

"Though apparently, even hearing Joss himself say it isn't enough for some people. They still say it's a retcon. "

Yes, I saw at least one example of that. Shrugs.

One more reason that made me happy for this interview is that it seems to have toned down some of the most irritating fanon pieces about vampires in Jossverse, that seemed to have made a return these later times (you know the "vampires can't love", "vampires don't have human feelings", "vampires imagine they have feelings", "Spike was just conditionned by the chip" bla bla bla). I have never understood these interpretations based on the belief that the rules about vampires were definitively set down in season 1 and never evolved later. There's a try to introduce a false coherence in a universe which is sometimes contradictory and were "rules" are in fact loose, supple and adaptated to the needs of the stories being told. I'm not saying there isn't any coherence in the Jossverse, but it's to be found in the individual journeys rather more than in large universe of Buffy that the writers never really bothered to define in details. If you don't want to take into account these facts about the writing of the characters in Btvs then there's a great chance you'll miss a good part of their stories and distort their meaning.

[shapinglight]

Oh I agree, but some people just seem to have this need to compartmentalise everything, particularly when it works in their favour.

For instance the people who yell most loudly about Joss retconning Spike's soul quest are often the same people who get very exercised about every word of Joss's being canon when they feel what he says supports their POV.