E.O.D : Why Complain When it Makes Sense

nerd4hire

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All right, as Popeye says, "enufk is enufk, and I can't stands it no more".

First of all--to you people who are complaining "End of Days" doesn't make sense... What dimension were you guys trapped in, that you weren't complaining about lack of common sense in the previous two episodes.

Those two episodes were so far removed from the rules of any kind of reality (even Buffyverse reality) it could only have meant one of two things. Drew Z Greenberg was writing it, or Rebecca Kirshner. As it turned out, both answers were correct.

There is little or nothing in End of Days, or Touched that makes anything approaching sense, yet you people wait untill "End of Days" to question continuity. Am I stranded in Bizzaro world, or what?

End of Days does makes sense.

I'll tell you what...

For you kids who don't seem to understand what a "reasonable assumption" is, give me your little hands, and I'll lead you through it.

Let's start with the bomb.

The bomb.
1. Lame and lazy plot device: true.
Doesn't make sense: True.

If the idea of using a bomb to kill the SITs was acceptable to the First, why didn't Casa Del Summers go boom a long time ago? And why sneak around. The trap thing was unnecessary. You just have a bringer drag the bomb under the Summer's house some night.

Here's the thing though... the writers of End of Days aren't responsible for this stupidity. They inherited it. Why are you laying the blame for it on their doorstep.

Espenson and Petrie did the best they could with the insanity they were handed. The problem was Kirshner put them in an impossible position.

The Turok-Han.

Some people seem to think the blast shook the seal loose, and the Turok-Han escaped. I would suggest to these people a policy of watching the episode before analyzing it. The blast does not take place at the school. It takes place in an underground complex, at the far end of town.

I expect the writer of the next episode to explain where all theTurok-Han are suddenly coming from. At this point though, the fact that it hasn't been explained yet, means nothing.

I can't remember--Is this the site where some genius was complaining, because he thought it was forced writing how Buffy could suddenly destroy 3 Turok Hans with ease?

I just shake my head when I see stuff like that. I mean if he missed the part where Buffy now had a mystical, super powerful weapon, that among other things, cuts through anything, is he going to get it, even if I explain it to him with diagrams?

The Taser:

Where does the taser come from?

Dawn and Xander are looking through Xander's car for a crossbow. She haphazardly moves a sword aside to look for the crossbow in the backseat. Obviously Dawn, Xander and the SITs have been driving around with weapons in the car. They forgot to bring them all in. This is understandable considering the chaotic aftermath of the massacre at the winery.

So you have a situation where weapons are strewn about Xander's car. Where does the taser come from? Think about it.

The Tomb:

How do they know it's there?

While researching, Willow and Giles discover a symbol connected to swords and ancient tombs. One assumes they research this further, and discover such a tomb must be on unconsecrated ground, because later Buffy is explaining how she is going to look for an ancient tomb on unconsecrated ground. You will notice when she enters the tomb, she leaves the graveyard (consecrated ground) through a gate.

How come no-one know's about this tomb thing yet?

Am I the only one that stayed awake for that part? A woman of great mystical power exists in this tomb. She is something different from anything anyone in the Buffyverse has previously been aware of. She refers to herself as a Guardian. She is hiding. She is good at hiding. Even the Watchers did not know the Guardians existed. She also has access to great power. She is one of the ones that created the magic Scythe, and as Willow pointed out "Scythe does matter".

The Guardian is powerful. It 's not unreasonable to imagine her creating something like an Interdimensional portal. Interdimensional portals are not unknown in the Buffyverse. Check out a Buffy episode called Anne for an example of an inter-dimensional portal in a pool. The fact that the inside of the tomb is hidden and different from the outside, is easily explained by the rules and possibilities of the Buffyverse.

I heard someone somewhere say this scene didn't make sense, because if such a tomb existed Archeologists would be all over it--studying it. True, but why are you just noticing this now? There have been major archeological finds lying all over Sunnydale for years. According to Willow they're available to anyone who can Google. If you're wondering about that though, why stop there. You could be asking questions like "where are the police when demons are terrorizing the populace?", and forget about the archeologists, where are the media? The mayor turns into a Giant snake at graduation, and no-one got it on video.

There's some stuff on Buffy where you just have to suspend your disbelief. I don't like it. You don't like it, but that's the way it is. Petrie and Espenson didn't invent that rule. Why are you picking on them after accepting 6 1/2 years of it.

How do Buffy, Caleb, Angel, and Spike all wind up in the tomb at the same time?

Buffy kicks the door down. Angel follows her in during the fight. How did he find her? Angel has always been able to find Buffy any time he looks for her. Why would it surprise you to discover he can still do it?

Caleb gets a free pass on the logic train. He is connected to a gigantic mystical force. It is not unreasonable to think such a force could find Buffy and lead Caleb to her. Spike was at the winery doing reconnaisance on Caleb. He told us that was where he was going. He followed Caleb to the tomb. Duh...

Conclusion:

Ok I admit, I don't know why Buffy is calling the weapon a Scythe, when it doesn't look anything like one.

Does that incidental crap really matter? I don't think so, not when you compare it to the monumental stupidity of the final scene of empty places where not one character behaves in a manner we would expect based on what we know about the characters. This group insanity is never explained. That's what bad writing looks like.

You can't be letting that slide, then two weeks later insist things should make sense. You especially can't do it when, for the most part, this particular episode (End of Days) does make sense.
 
Wow!!! I agree with pretty much everything you said! 🙂 I think I complained about one thing there, the whol how did Angel and Spike get to the tomb too thing, but you explained it away perfectly! 😀 Almost have to wonder what inspred you to go on this rant....
 
Yes, you were the only one who payed any attention, and the depths of your cognitive ability are not to be plumbed by mere mortals such as ourselves. 😉 We are now much wiser than ever before; having read this lexicon of ultimate truth and knowledge. Hehe.

Anyway... 🙂 I think you are right about one thing, the inconsistencies are always there to find, if you look for them. On the other hand, the overtness of the inconsistencies is what tends to set people off. Suddenly 2 dozen viewers mention, on this site, the lack of realism in what we all know to be a show requiring suspension of disbelief. (no really, we do know, I swear it lol) What does this mean? It means that the extent of the artistic license taken in the episode overcame suspension of disbelief for many people. It exists in a balance, you see..

Anyway, I'm not going to go into that too much, because personally I liked the episode, and the minor things didn't really bother me (although it can be entertaining to poke fun at them). The pyramid thing was a little over the top, but I took it in stride, and there have been some excellent suggestions that it may have been hidden via some power, so it may be a non-issue. In any case, I found the episode to be very good, when viewed from a character development standpoint. 🙂
 
on the other hand, the overtness of the inconsistencies is what tends to set people off. Suddenly 2 dozen viewers mention, on this site, the lack of realism in what we all know to be a show requiring suspension of disbelief. (no really, we do know, I swear it lol) What does this mean? It means that the extent of the artistic license taken in the episode overcame suspension of disbelief for many people. It exists in a balance, you see.

I quess this is one of those things I'll just have to keep saying over and over again, until someone hears me.

THE WRONG EPISODE IS TAKING THE WRAP.

Empty places is childishly nonsensical. Touched is like a slide show where things just suddenly appear without reason, preparation, or substantiation.

I'll show you what I mean. Pretend I'm Kennedy, doing a slide show.

"Click...Here I am sharing my bedroom with ten other SITs. They're typical self-involved, rebellious teenagers.

Click...Here I am all alone in the same room with a slutty smile on my face, waiting for my girlfriend Willow to share a night alone.."

The problem with slide-shows is they can be interesting, but you can't connect with them on a personal level. You stop caring about the characters, and as a result you believe in them less. You believe in the things they do less. It's more difficult to suspend your disbelief when they create something that defies belief, such as a hokey, contrived "Alias-24" bomb scene.

So after 2 weeks of this crap, poor Petrie and Espenson walk into the middle of it, and they write a good episode, but the viewers refuse to notice it, because they've finally figured out the previous 2 episodes didn't make a lot of sense.

Do you get my point? People want to hang the good writers for the sins of the bad writers from 2 weeks earlier.
 
There have been mishaps in the writing department since the show began, but I still say the guardian and her tomb was a little absurd. My issue this year is the First. Shouldn't the First know and see all. I hope the First has a plan, because so far it doesn't seem like it. If it's only to eliminate the slayer line, I'm disappointed. I mean it could of done that with a simple bomb already. Great season though, but it's had it's problems I even have trouble overlooking.....I usually can let things go, but when a guardian just pops up out of no where it seems flawed in my book. I wish they would of explained it in greater detail.
 
But I think you're overlooking the greatest plothole of all. Willow was looking at a website about the history of axes. WHO THE HELL MAKES A WEBSITE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF AXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh, just kidding...
 
two things:

1. I think Buffy and all call the weapon a scythe because of what the name of the sycthe represents dealing with the Grimm Reapor. You know, bringer of death or something or other.
It's not a scythe, they are just associating it with a scythe because of the power and the great way it 'brings about death'.

2. Why do people complain about all of these things listed above.... that they do not make sense? That a pyramid cannot exist in a graveyard without archealogists jumping all over it, blah, blah, balh. May I remind you people that you are watching a show about VAMPIRES and DEMONS. It shouldn't make sense in the first place because these things don't exist anyway. So, just go with the flow and enjoy being in la-la land for a hour and enjoy it. 🙂
 
Just because it's not possible for these events to happen, doesn't mean the writers can't explain the events that unfold more clearly. Who can honestly defend a temple in the graveyard with a guardian....I let a lot of things go, but not when they are misplaced and thrown in out of no where like that. It was so convenient......
 
The ubervamps:

Personally I was surprised to see them, but I just assumed that the First was able to bleed some more people, vamps, whatever, over the seal to get some of them out for it's dirty work. Or maybe the seal has already started to open and they are already in a massing state for the final showdown.

Dawn shocking One-eye:

Yeah, it was a bit odd. Even my brother was like "what?!".. Even if weapons are supposed to be all over in the car, it would have been much easier for everyone who had a problem with this if they had shown Dawn GETTING it secretly or shown her moving it aside while looking through things for her crossbow. It's a progression/editing flow type of problem I think. At least we would have known it was there for her to use.

The Guardians place in graveyard:

Awe, that kind of happen stance brought me back to the cheesey days of the mob shark guy from the pier.

They really should have at least shown that the Guardians' temple was magically there instead of "Hey, the temple is in Sunnydale's very own graveyard!" That was just really bad. They should have shown that the temple appeared there after Buffy found the scythe or something like that. Right now, because they don't show how the temple got there (either has always been there or not) it appears as if this completely-different-than-everything-else-tomb has always been there and HEY Buffy notices it this time..

The bomb:

I didn't think it was that big of deal. I thought it was the end of Faith and all the potentials with her though. That actcually would have been really fitting with how a lot of the Buffy episodes are like, leaving you feeling hurt and empty inside.

It would have even been cool if that DID happen and the first appeared as Faith (because she was killed in the explosion) when telling Caleb that she doesn't have time to kill him because her friends need her.

Wouldn't that have been totally twisted and tear-jerking?
 
Yeah it doesn't matter if it's a fantasy show or not, it still has to be internally consistent. That's what 'suspension of disbelief' is all about. The phrase doesn't imply that you blindly accept everything you see. It just implies that you suspend disbelief over one critical issue, and the rest must be internally consistent. Failure to observe this criteria has resulted in scores of really crappy movies. Check out Highlander II where the entire theme and backround of the first movie was altered because, presumably, consistancy doesn't matter in fantasy. Arg.
 
True: one important facet of the Genius of the Buffy series, is at it's best it finds a way to make you believe in the world it creates.

There's a problem with imaginary worlds you can't suspend your disbelief in.

Daffy Duck can jump out of a plane, bounce, and walk away, but you have no emotional connection to the character. Shows like Sabrina: the Good Witch, or Charmed can be watchable, or even entertaining, but your never going to see an episode like "The Body" on either of them. Your mind will never give them the subconscious emotional trust necessary to connect the reality of what you feel about life, with what you see on the screen. You don't believe in them on that level.

Buffy is meant to have emotional, and intellectual layers. All concerned with Buffy have stated this fact on many occasions. It works on those levels, because for 42 minutes you can give your total intellectual, and emotional trust to the belief of the Buffyverse.

Unfortunately "Empty Places" and "Touched" didn't meet the standards of BTVS. They created the foundation of a world you can't believe in.

How did the people at ME ever let that happen in the 5 story arc that ends the season and the Series. That was almost criminal.
 
Originally posted by nerd4hire
Shows like Sabrina: the Good Witch, or Charmed can be watchable, or even entertaining, but your never going to see an episode like "The Body" on either of them. Your mind will never give them the subconscious emotional trust necessary to connect the reality of what you feel about life, with what you see on the screen. You don't believe in them on that level.
Actually, I was (and still am to some extent) very attached and "connected" to Prue, Piper, and especially Phoebe in Charmed. Of course I started watching it early and felt the most connected in the first couple of seasons, when it was an awesome show. But I would agree that these last few seasons it has been much harder to connect, if at all. Not to undermind Buffy or anything, though! I'm definitely attached to the Buff 🙂
 
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