NotASlayer
Townie
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2023
- Messages
- 6
- Age
- 51
This is going to include spoilers for the entire series, so if you haven't seen it all, look away now.
I only recently finished watching the series - last week - and I never expected to be as affected by a fictional character as I was in this case. I had a need to get my feelings written down.
The death in question is that of Anya in "Chosen", the grand finale. She was hacked down from behind by a Bringer, chopped almost in half. The death was shocking, sudden and brutal. And meaningless.
Now, some opinions on this state that the meaningless of the death is what makes it powerful. It shows that anyone can die, without fanfare, in a situation like that. This is true, but this is not what makes it truly meaningless. Plus, though such may be more realistic, realism isn't necessarily what's sought after in a show that includes people with superhuman abilities, vampires, demons and magic.
For a story, a meaningless death can still be meaningful, in the story itself. Consider the death of Joyce Summers. This was also meaningless and it happened out of the blue. It showed that people could die, without any supernatural explanation at all, without a demon or vampire to blame, hunt down and kill. It could just happen. The meaningless death had meaning. Buffy and the others had to come to terms with it, something that Anya in particular had problems with, leading to one of the most moving speeches on the show when the former demon broke down because of how incomprehensible and stupid she found the whole thing.
Anya's death, however, lacked any meaning. It had no meaning for the story so it was a meaningless meaningless death. She died, her body was left behind and nobody seemed to care. There were a couple of throwaway lines from Andrew and Xander, and Xander's seemed to be completely out of character. This was the death of someone they had known for years, who might have been annoying to them on more than one occasion, but who had definitely helped on more than one occasion - especially in Glory's defeat - and wo did try, and the Scooby Gang spent more time mourning the loss of Sunnydale's mall than of Anya. This robbed her death of meaning in the story.
Later, Emma Caulfield Ford commented on this in interviews. The impression given was that the writers wanted someone to die, and they had to be a relatively major character. Anya was a logical choice, as Emma had said she didn't want to do another season, so her death was chosen. And chosen in a very brutal way. But the treatment after the death gave the impression that the writers thought "Oh, Anya died! We need to have something said." and just quickly wrote a couple of lines to barely acknowledge this. Given that this was the death of someone Xander clearly still loved, his response just didn't make sense.
For Anya's character, her death wasn't needed. Yes, she had changed and grown, but a death of another, such as Andrew, would have helped her grow more. The final season gave the definite impression that Andrew and Kennedy were the shiny new toys to keep around and play with, even if it was at the expense of some of the other characters. And, true or not, there was a definite impression that Josh Whedon wasn't keen on the character, even though she had great lines that were very well acted, with Emma managing to say some things that really shouldn't be publicly said as if they were perfectly normal.
If there had been an eighth season, Anya wouldn't have been in it. But that didn't mean her character had to die, or die the way she did.
Now, some opinions on this state that the meaningless of the death is what makes it powerful. It shows that anyone can die, without fanfare, in a situation like that. This is true, but this is not what makes it truly meaningless. Plus, though such may be more realistic, realism isn't necessarily what's sought after in a show that includes people with superhuman abilities, vampires, demons and magic.
For a story, a meaningless death can still be meaningful, in the story itself. Consider the death of Joyce Summers. This was also meaningless and it happened out of the blue. It showed that people could die, without any supernatural explanation at all, without a demon or vampire to blame, hunt down and kill. It could just happen. The meaningless death had meaning. Buffy and the others had to come to terms with it, something that Anya in particular had problems with, leading to one of the most moving speeches on the show when the former demon broke down because of how incomprehensible and stupid she found the whole thing.
Anya's death, however, lacked any meaning. It had no meaning for the story so it was a meaningless meaningless death. She died, her body was left behind and nobody seemed to care. There were a couple of throwaway lines from Andrew and Xander, and Xander's seemed to be completely out of character. This was the death of someone they had known for years, who might have been annoying to them on more than one occasion, but who had definitely helped on more than one occasion - especially in Glory's defeat - and wo did try, and the Scooby Gang spent more time mourning the loss of Sunnydale's mall than of Anya. This robbed her death of meaning in the story.
Later, Emma Caulfield Ford commented on this in interviews. The impression given was that the writers wanted someone to die, and they had to be a relatively major character. Anya was a logical choice, as Emma had said she didn't want to do another season, so her death was chosen. And chosen in a very brutal way. But the treatment after the death gave the impression that the writers thought "Oh, Anya died! We need to have something said." and just quickly wrote a couple of lines to barely acknowledge this. Given that this was the death of someone Xander clearly still loved, his response just didn't make sense.
For Anya's character, her death wasn't needed. Yes, she had changed and grown, but a death of another, such as Andrew, would have helped her grow more. The final season gave the definite impression that Andrew and Kennedy were the shiny new toys to keep around and play with, even if it was at the expense of some of the other characters. And, true or not, there was a definite impression that Josh Whedon wasn't keen on the character, even though she had great lines that were very well acted, with Emma managing to say some things that really shouldn't be publicly said as if they were perfectly normal.
If there had been an eighth season, Anya wouldn't have been in it. But that didn't mean her character had to die, or die the way she did.
I only recently finished watching the series - last week - and I never expected to be as affected by a fictional character as I was in this case. I had a need to get my feelings written down.
And they definitely depowered the Uber!Vamps, unless the first one was their leader/big bro!
