So Joss has no problem with the world knowing about vampires, demons, and monsters...

[The Scourge]

Joss is fine with the whole world knowing about vampires, slayers, demons, magic, and other monsters... but he has a problem with the citizens of LA remembering the city being taken to Hell?

This makes no sense to me. Especially since the "We don't want Joe Average to recognize him" explanation doesn't even fly since they have Angel in London with know current plans to bring him home to LA.

Does this annoy anyone else?

 

[caritas08]

Yes, the supernatural world which Buffy and the gang worked so hard to keep under wraps through the whole show suddenly becoming common knowledge is one of the biggest killers of the comics for me. That and Harmony getting her own reality tv show. Really, comics, really?

 

[The Scourge]

Yeah, season 8 really dropped the ball. I just don't get what the big deal is about making it a point to make sure only Angel remembers LA going to Hell.

Why bother? The world already knows about the supernatural now. I think its because they (Joss) didn't want to pick up where After the Fall left off with the citizens of LA loving Angel and considering him a hero. After all, gotta go back to status-quo loner-vampire searching for redemption... again.

 

[Icarium]

Why bother? The world already knows about the supernatural now.

Not to mention that Angel is (or at least should be if there is to be any consistency left in this story) basically public enemy number one after what he did as Twilight. Him strolling around without being recognized already requires a lot of contrivance and handwaving.

Generally, I think the end of the secret war against demons and so on, is yet another example of the writers being lazy and wanting to have it both ways. They want things to change but somehow Buffy and the rest to be the most important people in the struggle against supernatural menaces. I don't see how this will happen without retcons or other silly contrivances. This has been a problem ever since The Initiative was introduced but until now you could say the governments didn't want to scare the population, so they couldn't use say tanks against the demons. People finding vampires cool is, I reckon, a jab at "Twilight" but considering that the very same writers had spent years trying to convince us how uber-sexy and cool Spike and Angel are, any attacks on franchises using vampires as sex symbols seem ridiculously hypocritical to me. "Lie to Me"'s vampire worshippers portrayal worked because they were portrayed as deluded fools, we weren't supposed to think most people are like that. Plus, at the time the show hadn't been pandering to fans of sexy vampires nearly as much.

 

[VisionGirl]

Generally, I think the end of the secret war against demons and so on, is yet another example of the writers being lazy and wanting to have it both ways. They want things to change but somehow Buffy and the rest to be the most important people in the struggle against supernatural menaces.

ITA. The Slayers could easily have been known to some factions (the government, the demon world etc), but they didn't have to be revealed to the entire world for the rest of the plot to work.

This has been a problem ever since The Initiative was introduced but until now you could say the governments didn't want to scare the population, so they couldn't use say tanks against the demons.

I didn't really find that so unbelievable (in a fantasy series). Conspiracy theorists contend that the government basically knows about everything & is keeping tons of secrets from us. It makes sense that they would know about the demon world (& seek to exploit that). That's different than Average Joe knowing about it.

People finding vampires cool is, I reckon, a jab at "Twilight" but considering that the very same writers had spent years trying to convince us how uber-sexy and cool Spike and Angel are, any attacks on franchises using vampires as sex symbols seem ridiculously hypocritical to me. "Lie to Me"'s vampire worshippers portrayal worked because they were portrayed as deluded fools, we weren't supposed to think most people are like that. Plus, at the time the show hadn't been pandering to fans of sexy vampires nearly as much.

Yes, although I tend to think of the Harmony arc more in line with the outing of vampires in True Blood. I mean seriously, "vampires are people too"- sounds to me like it's stolen straight from the pages of a Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novel! Although the series has more political aspects of that than the books. Can I tell you how much I cannot stand the Harmony arc?

 

[Icarium]

I didn't really find that so unbelievable (in a fantasy series). Conspiracy theorists contend that the government basically knows about everything & is keeping tons of secrets from us. It makes sense that they would know about the demon world (& seek to exploit that).

Sure, but they can't really exploit it if the world literally goes to hell. Politicians might be stupid bastards (especially according to Joss) but they tend to value their own survival quite a lot. Leaving a bunch of civilians to protect the place where you need to know the plural of apocalypse is basically a suicidal move. Not that the Watcher Council is much better, mind you. I like the setting in S1-2 the most - no Council, no government involvement (well, except for the FBI school for invisible spies), the Scoobies were truly on their own. Did it make much sense that the world had managed to survive in these conditions or that people were still living in Sunnydale? Hell, no. But "us against the demons" is a more attractive premise to me than "us against the demons because the people who know there is a very real threat can't be bothered to help (just because otherwise the plot wouldn't work)".