Season 6 is underrated

[katmobile]

I think it's on topic because I think it's intrinsic to S6. 🙂 In fact, the season finishes on Spike receiving his soul.

I don't think there's any "perhaps" about it. 🙂

We sometimes use them - Agape, for instance, is latinised as Caritas, anglicized as Charity. But, who defines these terms (I think St Augustine had a lot to do with synthesizing Greek and biblical love)? Where are the female Greek philosophers, the female Popes, the women bishops? The great women poets, playwrights and novelists? Yeah...I know we have them now but that's not always been the case. Traditionally, it's men who've told us, explained to us, described what love is. Would Shakespeare's sister (not the group) have experienced love, written about love, in quite the same way as her brother, William? Is a mother's love for a child the same as a father's? I'm not according value - I'm asking if a "universal context" actually exist? This isn't going off topic because, IMO, this is what underpins S6 (and 7) and (again, IMO) it's one of the reasons we shouldn't underrate the later seasons.

I don't think it's relevant as it's not gendered not in my eyes. It's just a model that helps me understand soul canon as does the essay Code of the Whedonverse the Elect and the Damned and my expansion of Angel as inheritantly rational and Spike as inheritantly instinctive I extrapolate out from it. Some people may accept or reject it at will but I find it explains things to me in a way that makes sense.

 

[TriBel]

I don't think it's relevant as it's not gendered not in my eyes. It's just a model that helps me understand soul canon as does the essay Code of the Whedonverse the Elect and the Damned and my expansion of Angel as inheritantly rational and Spike as inheritantly instinctive I extrapolate out from it. Some people may accept or reject it at will but I find it explains things to me in a way that makes sense.

Actually, I agree with you (and the Angel/Spike dichotomy) 🙂 . My argument would be that Whedon's looking for a love that transcends, or at least, goes beyond the models available to us and for that I'd be inclined to look at the French Feminist philosophers (Irigaray, Kristeva et al.). I think there's a reason the Virgin Mary and Joyce figure in S7 and Joyce reappears in S12.

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

Im luvin' the philosophical asides.

love, or the lack of it, is pretty intriguing in season 6. Buffy always reminded me of April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road when she said "I don't love you" to Spike. Ouch!

 

[RiverandFaith]

I feel like season 6 is both over and underrated. I think it's because there is so much content to go through compared to other seasons.
Season 1, we're setting up shop
Season 2, we've got a rhythm going and things start to get personal. Instead of just a random prophecy that has an old vamp and death, the characters are all starting to see how their worlds are going to be effected but this world they didn't know existed, and now Angelus is playing with us, and people we are connecting to and loving are dying (ex: Jenny, Kendra, Angel)
Season 3, we start to mature and new friends that we should trust are going against us, (ex: Faith and the counsel 'should' be trusted but can't be) and we start losing people not to death, but because they leave (Angel going to LA)
Season 4, whole new world and things aren't what they seem. There are secrets everywhere and even though we've experienced betrayal now, we don't have a solid place to stay now.
Season 5, the world changes because of Dawn so we gain family, but loose Mom and a different form of support, we face a God
Season 6, We are almost combining seasons 2-5. (Death and character evolution. S2 has Angel to Angelus, S6 has Willow to Dark!Willow) (We mature and can't trust and people leave. S3 Can't trust Faith + Council, Angel leaves buffy, S6 Buffy can't trust anyone because of emotional trauma, can't trust Willow with her addiction and Tara leaves Willow in hopes of helping her) (New world and deeper secrets, and no solid home. S4 There's an entire gov. organization for demons and everyone has shifting homes, S6 Buffy loses Heaven and is thrown back to Earth but can't take comfort anywhere except for sex with Spike, but that's a secret that she hates herself for.) (Changes from lack of support and facing God(s) S5 losing Mom, S6 everyone is losing control of themselves whether it's Willow with magic, Buffy and Spike together, Xander leaving Anya at the altar, Anya going back to being a demon because she can't take humanity anymore, Giles wanting to and leaving because he feels he can't do anymore) Season 6 has the darkest parts of the series. There is so much to analysis, metaphors, highs and lows and we see the worst of almost everyone. With episodes like Once More with Feeling, Dead Things and our Dark!Willow, there's a lot to look at. And I haven't even started with the "Big Bad" of the season. I feel that Warren is the most terrifying villain because he is real in the sense that the world falls apart due to a person with a toxic personality and a gun. You can go to sleep knowing that Glory isn't going to end the world, and Adam isn't going to attack with an army of monster, but there are Warrens all over the real world. And when you add real life to your heros going through their darkest stages is a recipe for a complex season that can be so many things at once. Such as over and underrated.

Sorry for my rant...