I watch too much Buffy....
Dec. 30th, 2003 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Why isn't there another new slayer? I mean, the first time Buffy died, we got Kendra. And when Kendra died, we got Faith. But then Buffy died again. Didn't that activate another new slayer? We know her resurrection helped destabilize the slayer line, so why did we still have only two slayers running around, instead of three?
(edit)After typing that, I realized I have problems with some other shows, so let's turn this into a general inconsistencies rant, okay?
1. I don't, unlike some people, mind Captain Picard speaking with a British accent... it's certainly better than trying to make Patrick Stewart speak with a French accent! Heck, I don't even mind the fact that his French, when required to speak it, isn't all that good. But why on earth does he seemingly know no French authors or playwrights? Why is it always Shakespeare and Dickens? Why not Moliere and Voltaire? Or La Fontaine? Or, well, anyone? It's a further outgrowth of my complaint that Terran Culture is just American culture with no money and cool spaceships. *sighs deeply*
2. Why, oh why, has Daniel Jackson stopped translating everything? Universal translators are, frankly, impossible, but in shows and books where they exist, I accept that... I'll allow some suspension of disbelief. But when you have a character whose job it is to translate, why on earth does everyone start speaking English? It's annoying. Just make up some sort of translating device, maybe one which works semi-realisticly by making you learn languages faster instead of really translating, and I'll be happy.
3. What happened to Judy from Family matters? They used to have two daughters, and then, all of a sudden, they just had one. No reason either, she just disappeared from all but the credits. Similarly, what happened to the older son in Happy Days? Huh? Huh?
4. Back to Star Trek. One word. Klingons. And don't give me that "we don't talk about it" crap, I want a real reason, one that fits into the story. Yes, I know they didn't have the budget for the makeup in TOS, I still want a real storyline reason!
(edit)After typing that, I realized I have problems with some other shows, so let's turn this into a general inconsistencies rant, okay?
1. I don't, unlike some people, mind Captain Picard speaking with a British accent... it's certainly better than trying to make Patrick Stewart speak with a French accent! Heck, I don't even mind the fact that his French, when required to speak it, isn't all that good. But why on earth does he seemingly know no French authors or playwrights? Why is it always Shakespeare and Dickens? Why not Moliere and Voltaire? Or La Fontaine? Or, well, anyone? It's a further outgrowth of my complaint that Terran Culture is just American culture with no money and cool spaceships. *sighs deeply*
2. Why, oh why, has Daniel Jackson stopped translating everything? Universal translators are, frankly, impossible, but in shows and books where they exist, I accept that... I'll allow some suspension of disbelief. But when you have a character whose job it is to translate, why on earth does everyone start speaking English? It's annoying. Just make up some sort of translating device, maybe one which works semi-realisticly by making you learn languages faster instead of really translating, and I'll be happy.
3. What happened to Judy from Family matters? They used to have two daughters, and then, all of a sudden, they just had one. No reason either, she just disappeared from all but the credits. Similarly, what happened to the older son in Happy Days? Huh? Huh?
4. Back to Star Trek. One word. Klingons. And don't give me that "we don't talk about it" crap, I want a real reason, one that fits into the story. Yes, I know they didn't have the budget for the makeup in TOS, I still want a real storyline reason!
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I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 07:40 pm (UTC)And Spike is HOT :0)
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 07:44 pm (UTC)But, if Buffy is not actually the slayer anymore, how was her most recent death the cause of the slayer line destabilizing? Why did it matter?
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 08:11 pm (UTC)One of the things that really annoyed me was in Season 3 the episode called Helpless. The Slayer is drained of her power and then trapped with a vampire. Now, at the time Faith was the official Slayer so why did Buffy have to go through the ritual?? Also, Jeff Kober the vampire from that episode turns up as Rack in series 6 which really pissed me off - I have this thing where I remember faces!!
There's a great site where they pick out the inconsistencies in various shows while reviewing them at the same time. You can find the Buffy show here and if you click on display all episodes you'll get a review (and a snark) of every episode shown. Good fun.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=12
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 08:48 pm (UTC)Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 09:22 pm (UTC)(and because Eliza Dushku turned down an offer to do Faith: The Other Vampire Slayer to do Tru Calling instead)
just my $0.02
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 09:35 pm (UTC)Look, you! No need to get reasonable on me, okay? Why not just call it "Buffybot the vampire slayer" or something?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 08:57 pm (UTC)Speaking of Enterprise, and universal translators, although I'm not a huge fan of the show, I do like how they've bade the UT a lot more primitive, so Sato has to do a bit of work. It's kinda neat, even if her linguistic talents are more than a bit... uhh... improbable. :)
And as annoying as having everyone speak English may be, it really does slow down storytelling to have Daniel learn a new language every episode. Sort of like how in the beginning of TNG, they were planning to have saucer separation be a standard tactic, but later on they decided it ate up too much story time and made it an emergency move. And as for Terran culture in the 24th Century, it is terribly American. One scene in particular that comes to mind is when some French expression (I forget which in particular, but it's pretty well known, even by American standards), looks up the cultural reference in his memory banks, and refers to it as being in the "obscure Earth language French." I should hope we're not all speaking English in the 24th century...
Also, there are very rarely any planets which seem to have any level of linguistic diversity. Clearly, all advanced, spacefaring cultures are completely homogenous in that respect. Then again, everybody's humanoid too, yes, it's terribly inconvenient blah blah...
Anyway, back to Stargate for a second, the one inconsistency I've always wondered about is this:
In the movie, the glyphs on the Earth gate represent constellations in Earth's night sky. The glyphs on the Abydos gate are different, because, of course, the stars are in different positions. In the series, however, all the glyphs on all the gates are the same except for the point of origin glyph. Which, of course, is understandable, as it would be REALLY annoying to make up a new set of 39 glyphs every week. And then with the Ancients building the 'gates and all, it actually makes sense that the glyphs would represent Earth constellations... Assuming that the Ancients came from Earth.
But then... why does the point of origin glyph on Earth's stargate represent a pyramid? The Goa'uld didn't build the 'gates; they just used them... :)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 09:07 pm (UTC)Oh, I know the real-life why, I just want the storyline why. I don't mind a little suspension of disbelief, I just want to know what it is I'm not disbelieving.
Also, there are very rarely any planets which seem to have any level of linguistic diversity. Clearly, all advanced, spacefaring cultures are completely homogenous in that respect.
Linguistic, cultural, racial... Incidentally, why on Vulcan is Tuvok black? Aren't all Vulcans pasty pale? Continuing that, why are all Klingons fierce and honorable, and all Vulcans unemotional and all Ferengi greedy pigs and nothing else, but humans get to be all those things and more?
But then... why does the point of origin glyph on Earth's stargate represent a pyramid? The Goa'uld didn't build the 'gates; they just used them... :)
So that people with nothing to say would have something to talk about. Um. Maybe the Goa'uld are the world's biggest grafitti artists?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 10:10 pm (UTC)And what was with that episode where Q decided to condemn the Enterprise for humanity's crimes? Why didn't Worf, or even Troi just sit there like, "yup, okay, I'm getting off now, nice knowing you!"? They're not human!
And it's nice to know that in our new, enlightened universe, the federation is made up of white people. Mostly white men, judging by the starships... I mean, seriously, except for Worf, are any of the alien-actors black, or asian, or hispanic, or anything but white under all that makeup, or the lack thereof?
Still, at least I know I'm safe!
OOH! More questions! So, Janeway absconds with a starship, gets lost for god knows how long, and gets home to a cushy admiral job... but Picard's still a lowly captain? Huh?
Of course, maybe if he would initiate the auto-destruct a little less often.... AND WHY DID IT TAKE THEM SO LONG TO PUT A SPECIAL SHIELD AROUND THE WARP CORE?
The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:18 pm (UTC)Here's my take on how it may go down:
1) There are in fact two species of Klingon.. The Really Human Looking Klingon, and the Not So Human Looking Klingon.. After all, why not stick with a good (albeit very much overdone) concept... (Vulcan/Romulan/Reman, 5 species of Xindi, Technically the Borg which is an innumerable amount of Species)
2) As with other overdone concepts, and as an easy out to explaining just about every inconsistency (read: bad scripting) its probably because of someone contaminating the oh-so-sensitive Timeline During/After Archer and before Kirk. Or maybe Kirk was never in Archers timeline.. Maybe there are three timelines.. maybe on some later date they'll make yet another Star Trek Movie that involves of all things something Temporal which will explain/solve all the problems with the Trek Universe.
just my $0.02
Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:34 pm (UTC)Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:54 pm (UTC)And we're due for WWIII in just under 60 years or so. :)
Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 10:01 pm (UTC)Here's something else. If Tom Paris is such a history buff, why can't he get his history right? And why is it that in the few episodes that dealt with homosexuality (I can think of one in TNG and one in Enterprise which had at the end an ad for "if you'd like to know more about homosexuality and AIDS, call..." in case you missed the point) they never ONCE mention gay people, not even in the context of "humans used to have a similar problem with gay people, but we got over it (or exterminated them all, apparently....)"?
I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 07:40 pm (UTC)And Spike is HOT :0)
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 07:44 pm (UTC)But, if Buffy is not actually the slayer anymore, how was her most recent death the cause of the slayer line destabilizing? Why did it matter?
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 08:11 pm (UTC)One of the things that really annoyed me was in Season 3 the episode called Helpless. The Slayer is drained of her power and then trapped with a vampire. Now, at the time Faith was the official Slayer so why did Buffy have to go through the ritual?? Also, Jeff Kober the vampire from that episode turns up as Rack in series 6 which really pissed me off - I have this thing where I remember faces!!
There's a great site where they pick out the inconsistencies in various shows while reviewing them at the same time. You can find the Buffy show here and if you click on display all episodes you'll get a review (and a snark) of every episode shown. Good fun.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=12
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 08:48 pm (UTC)Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 09:22 pm (UTC)(and because Eliza Dushku turned down an offer to do Faith: The Other Vampire Slayer to do Tru Calling instead)
just my $0.02
Re: I also watch too much Buffy
Date: 2003-12-30 09:35 pm (UTC)Look, you! No need to get reasonable on me, okay? Why not just call it "Buffybot the vampire slayer" or something?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 08:57 pm (UTC)Speaking of Enterprise, and universal translators, although I'm not a huge fan of the show, I do like how they've bade the UT a lot more primitive, so Sato has to do a bit of work. It's kinda neat, even if her linguistic talents are more than a bit... uhh... improbable. :)
And as annoying as having everyone speak English may be, it really does slow down storytelling to have Daniel learn a new language every episode. Sort of like how in the beginning of TNG, they were planning to have saucer separation be a standard tactic, but later on they decided it ate up too much story time and made it an emergency move. And as for Terran culture in the 24th Century, it is terribly American. One scene in particular that comes to mind is when some French expression (I forget which in particular, but it's pretty well known, even by American standards), looks up the cultural reference in his memory banks, and refers to it as being in the "obscure Earth language French." I should hope we're not all speaking English in the 24th century...
Also, there are very rarely any planets which seem to have any level of linguistic diversity. Clearly, all advanced, spacefaring cultures are completely homogenous in that respect. Then again, everybody's humanoid too, yes, it's terribly inconvenient blah blah...
Anyway, back to Stargate for a second, the one inconsistency I've always wondered about is this:
In the movie, the glyphs on the Earth gate represent constellations in Earth's night sky. The glyphs on the Abydos gate are different, because, of course, the stars are in different positions. In the series, however, all the glyphs on all the gates are the same except for the point of origin glyph. Which, of course, is understandable, as it would be REALLY annoying to make up a new set of 39 glyphs every week. And then with the Ancients building the 'gates and all, it actually makes sense that the glyphs would represent Earth constellations... Assuming that the Ancients came from Earth.
But then... why does the point of origin glyph on Earth's stargate represent a pyramid? The Goa'uld didn't build the 'gates; they just used them... :)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 09:07 pm (UTC)Oh, I know the real-life why, I just want the storyline why. I don't mind a little suspension of disbelief, I just want to know what it is I'm not disbelieving.
Also, there are very rarely any planets which seem to have any level of linguistic diversity. Clearly, all advanced, spacefaring cultures are completely homogenous in that respect.
Linguistic, cultural, racial... Incidentally, why on Vulcan is Tuvok black? Aren't all Vulcans pasty pale? Continuing that, why are all Klingons fierce and honorable, and all Vulcans unemotional and all Ferengi greedy pigs and nothing else, but humans get to be all those things and more?
But then... why does the point of origin glyph on Earth's stargate represent a pyramid? The Goa'uld didn't build the 'gates; they just used them... :)
So that people with nothing to say would have something to talk about. Um. Maybe the Goa'uld are the world's biggest grafitti artists?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-30 10:10 pm (UTC)And what was with that episode where Q decided to condemn the Enterprise for humanity's crimes? Why didn't Worf, or even Troi just sit there like, "yup, okay, I'm getting off now, nice knowing you!"? They're not human!
And it's nice to know that in our new, enlightened universe, the federation is made up of white people. Mostly white men, judging by the starships... I mean, seriously, except for Worf, are any of the alien-actors black, or asian, or hispanic, or anything but white under all that makeup, or the lack thereof?
Still, at least I know I'm safe!
OOH! More questions! So, Janeway absconds with a starship, gets lost for god knows how long, and gets home to a cushy admiral job... but Picard's still a lowly captain? Huh?
Of course, maybe if he would initiate the auto-destruct a little less often.... AND WHY DID IT TAKE THEM SO LONG TO PUT A SPECIAL SHIELD AROUND THE WARP CORE?
The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:18 pm (UTC)Here's my take on how it may go down:
1) There are in fact two species of Klingon.. The Really Human Looking Klingon, and the Not So Human Looking Klingon.. After all, why not stick with a good (albeit very much overdone) concept... (Vulcan/Romulan/Reman, 5 species of Xindi, Technically the Borg which is an innumerable amount of Species)
2) As with other overdone concepts, and as an easy out to explaining just about every inconsistency (read: bad scripting) its probably because of someone contaminating the oh-so-sensitive Timeline During/After Archer and before Kirk. Or maybe Kirk was never in Archers timeline.. Maybe there are three timelines.. maybe on some later date they'll make yet another Star Trek Movie that involves of all things something Temporal which will explain/solve all the problems with the Trek Universe.
just my $0.02
Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:34 pm (UTC)Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 09:54 pm (UTC)And we're due for WWIII in just under 60 years or so. :)
Re: The Klingon Debacle
Date: 2003-12-30 10:01 pm (UTC)Here's something else. If Tom Paris is such a history buff, why can't he get his history right? And why is it that in the few episodes that dealt with homosexuality (I can think of one in TNG and one in Enterprise which had at the end an ad for "if you'd like to know more about homosexuality and AIDS, call..." in case you missed the point) they never ONCE mention gay people, not even in the context of "humans used to have a similar problem with gay people, but we got over it (or exterminated them all, apparently....)"?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-04 10:41 am (UTC)Firstly... how did the PTB know that Buffy had died the first time? Was it a mystical thing, like.. there's a big sign that says "slayer's life force" and it went black when she died, so they "called" another one? In that sense, is she still dead in the eyes of the PTB? Are the Powers That Be completely different from the Watchers' Council? That would make more sense with the tests they put Buffy through- both the one in "Helpless" and the one in Season 5 (I want to say "Real Me" was the name of that eppy). Though in Season 5, they logically wouldn't go to Faith considering.. yah. She was "indisposed" and all that. I'd have to agree with an above poster who mentioned Faith should have gotten the "slayers test" in "Helpless", though. Why didn't both of them get it?
So. Where do the potentials come in? Did the Watchers Council know who the potentials were back when Buffy was called but they didn't train them or let them know about Slayers back then? It certainly seems like that would reduce the learning curve of the slayer.
I think these things bother us as Buffy fans because Joss is usually pretty thurough when it comes to backstory and stuff, and it's hard to just brush things like this aside for "oh, well.. it's a TV show."
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:33 pm (UTC)Those are good points! You should bring them up in
:(
no subject
Date: 2004-01-04 10:41 am (UTC)Firstly... how did the PTB know that Buffy had died the first time? Was it a mystical thing, like.. there's a big sign that says "slayer's life force" and it went black when she died, so they "called" another one? In that sense, is she still dead in the eyes of the PTB? Are the Powers That Be completely different from the Watchers' Council? That would make more sense with the tests they put Buffy through- both the one in "Helpless" and the one in Season 5 (I want to say "Real Me" was the name of that eppy). Though in Season 5, they logically wouldn't go to Faith considering.. yah. She was "indisposed" and all that. I'd have to agree with an above poster who mentioned Faith should have gotten the "slayers test" in "Helpless", though. Why didn't both of them get it?
So. Where do the potentials come in? Did the Watchers Council know who the potentials were back when Buffy was called but they didn't train them or let them know about Slayers back then? It certainly seems like that would reduce the learning curve of the slayer.
I think these things bother us as Buffy fans because Joss is usually pretty thurough when it comes to backstory and stuff, and it's hard to just brush things like this aside for "oh, well.. it's a TV show."
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:33 pm (UTC)Those are good points! You should bring them up in
:(