First off I need to be BOWING DOWN TO YOU for this piece of meta. It is, of course, a very compelling argument. There are tons of things that I never thought about, and although I watched every ep of ATS, I'm not as deeply familiar with all the little nuances like I am with BTVS.
Really love your conclusions about the sisters, but at the same time doesn't Dawn seem to always feel overshadowed by Buffy? Men fall head over heels for her, slayerhood, older sis, all the specialness, one and only?
And when you think about it, Buffy actually feels overshadowed for everything that Dawn is jealous of, she is jealous of Dawn's normality. She sometimes feels less important than Dawn, because she's the little sis that everyone has to take care of - and Dawn has a little pet/nick name...while Buffy doesn't right? Though her annoyance - or feelings of inadequacy at this point, seems to be more plot driven in that specific context. I don't know if it's necessarily a reflection of their relationship as a whole...or maybe it is?
As for Joyce, I completely agree, but I think the "tragedy" in Buffy's family has to fall on the paternal side, obviously, and that's as far as Joss was willing to go, because sometimes Buffy just needed a mom, since for daddy stuff she turned to Giles. I kind of feel that Joyce is really on and off, there are times when I just think...man I kind of miss her, but when she died, I wasn't devastated because ya know the great Joyce, was dead, but rather the effect that it would have on Buffy's life. Joyce wasn't neither good or bad, she was just a mother, struggling to connect and understand her "rebellious" daughter, but that only goes as far as S3. Because come S4 they're sort of a happy shiny family where Buffy can be a lot more free and open with her mother, and they can both be adults. Perhaps that's why she was killed off (aside from Kristin needing a break?) because things got TOO good. At this point they'd built, arguably, a pretty strong, trusting relationship with one another. We dump in Dawn and it gets a little hairy for a bit (more so for plot yes? then anything else), then we get back to normal. Since Joss hates happy shiny relationships....
The rest is history heh.
But I don't know if any of that was either interesting or insightful, but I can't seem to go to sleep even though it's so late and this Benylin is refusing to knock me out, I thought I'd take a gander and I'm glad I did :)
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Really love your conclusions about the sisters, but at the same time doesn't Dawn seem to always feel overshadowed by Buffy? Men fall head over heels for her, slayerhood, older sis, all the specialness, one and only?
And when you think about it, Buffy actually feels overshadowed for everything that Dawn is jealous of, she is jealous of Dawn's normality. She sometimes feels less important than Dawn, because she's the little sis that everyone has to take care of - and Dawn has a little pet/nick name...while Buffy doesn't right? Though her annoyance - or feelings of inadequacy at this point, seems to be more plot driven in that specific context. I don't know if it's necessarily a reflection of their relationship as a whole...or maybe it is?
As for Joyce, I completely agree, but I think the "tragedy" in Buffy's family has to fall on the paternal side, obviously, and that's as far as Joss was willing to go, because sometimes Buffy just needed a mom, since for daddy stuff she turned to Giles. I kind of feel that Joyce is really on and off, there are times when I just think...man I kind of miss her, but when she died, I wasn't devastated because ya know the great Joyce, was dead, but rather the effect that it would have on Buffy's life. Joyce wasn't neither good or bad, she was just a mother, struggling to connect and understand her "rebellious" daughter, but that only goes as far as S3. Because come S4 they're sort of a happy shiny family where Buffy can be a lot more free and open with her mother, and they can both be adults. Perhaps that's why she was killed off (aside from Kristin needing a break?) because things got TOO good. At this point they'd built, arguably, a pretty strong, trusting relationship with one another. We dump in Dawn and it gets a little hairy for a bit (more so for plot yes? then anything else), then we get back to normal. Since Joss hates happy shiny relationships....
The rest is history heh.
But I don't know if any of that was either interesting or insightful, but I can't seem to go to sleep even though it's so late and this Benylin is refusing to knock me out, I thought I'd take a gander and I'm glad I did :)