Still on the Warren trip
Aug. 6th, 2003 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe guestages are gone, but now helping out at the office is back on the menu. Still, I managed to take a quick look at my friends list and some other ljs. There was an icon kerfuffle? Sheesh. I feel tempted to quote a certain remark made by Buffy in Chosen.
On the other hand, looking up my mail was quite the thrill. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Here's the fourth of the Five Things Which Never Happened To Warren. I've already started on the final vignette, but first, read this one...
IV.
Hanging out with Jonathan and Andrew was a bit like starting to die, and Warren knew it. He had shared a few classes with Jonathan in High School, of course, but they hadn’t become friends then; they had barely exchanged a few words, though on two or three occasions they had rolled their eyes at the same idiocy, or recognized an allusion no one else got. As for the Wells brothers, he found both the dogs at the Prom and the monkeys at the play mildly entertaining, but not enough to remember their first names, and Andrew was a year younger anyway. He did remember Jonathan’s first name. Most of all, he remembered that as isolated and sniggered about as he himself was, Jonathan was laughed about more, and had the downtrodden look perfected through years which Warren swore he’d never wear himself. Jonathan had accepted the role they had assigned to him, it was as simple as that, and Warren never would.
To become friends with Jonathan and Andrew meant an implicit capitulation to Sunnydale. It meant Warren had resigned himself to staying here. It meant he had given in and had started to be swallowed by the Sunnydale miasma, and that one day it would spit him out with the rest of the creeps and freaks who never made it in the real world. The knowledge was oddly soothing for a time, numb as he felt after Katrina had left. Besides, if Jonathan and Andrew had one thing going for them, it was that Warren never had to pay attention to his words; he could talk about whether Saavik would have worked better than Valeris in ST VI without anyone looking at him with condescending amusement. Moreover, he was smarter than both of them and became the leader without much effort. It wasn’t a bad feeling, being looked up upon. For a time, it was enough.
For a time.
Then looking at Jonathan and seeing himself started to become more and more unbearable. Andrew he didn’t mind as much, because Andrew was such a child anyway. But Jonathan was his own age, he might not have been as intelligent, yet he was by no means stupid, he had some genuine skills as a warlock. And he had tried to kill himself once already. Hearing Jonathan bring up his pathetic memories of that glamour spell he had been foolish enough to end, or of the Prom where he had been singled out to give a speech devoted to the Slayer who had taken Katrina and with her Warren’s chance of a future away from Sunnydale made Warren wonder whether this was how he, too, was going to end, sooner or later. Boasting of a few gadgets, with the look of a dog grateful for scraps, and with the prospect of another suicide attempt on the horizon.
It was this prospect that made him start their career as supervillains.
This, too, worked, for a time. The Slayer was by no means the invincible warrior they had thought her to be. Actually, she was quite pathetic, with her attempts to get a job, ending in Doublemeat Palace, of all the places. At this point, the supervillain gig had started to bring in cash, and Warren thought he was entitled to feel smug, watching her on his surveillance cameras in her awful red and white stripes and cow hat and her inability to return to College again, or indeed to have any kind of fun, if one excepted those marathon sex sessions with Spike which looked quite entertaining on video but didn’t seem to make her happy, either. Served her right. If anyone was a loser doomed for an early death, it was her, not him.
Then Warren saw Katrina again, and his carefully reconstructed world shattered, like the glass splitters surrounding her after he had dealt her that final, fatal blow. It was all he could do to keep it together and save their collective asses, and who was the one to spoil it afterwards by giving him that holier-than-thou look? Jonathan. Of course. Watching Jonathan watching him would drive him insane if he didn’t put a stop to it sooner or later. So Warren decided to make it sooner.
Shaking Andrew loose for an evening was tricky, because Andrew on his own was a security risk. Not to mention he might think Warren was trying to cut him loose. As it turned out, Andrew thought no such thing. He had a remarkable capacity for belief, which was useful. “Don’t let me down on this, Number One,” Warren said, entrusting Andrew with collecting information on some demonic something or the other they could use to hide better from the Slayer, and Andrew, blue eyes wide open, and obviously pleased by the sensation of Warren’s hand on his shoulder, assured him he wouldn’t.
If Andrew was the ideal Trusted Lieutenant, Jonathan was anything but.
“Where is Andrew?” he demanded suspiciously as soon as he had realised Andrew was gone. Warren explained about the mission, and Jonathan looked somewhat mollified, but only barely. Unwashed, wild-eyed, and twitchy, he certainly was Jack Torrance material. If Jack Nicholson had been pint-sized and not inclined to smile.
“Relax, Sparky,” Warren said. “The truth is, I wanted to talk with you. About what happened. That’s what you’re thinking about all the time, isn’t it?”
“I thought we weren’t to talk about it ever again,” Jonathan said, voice still edgy with distrust.
“Well yes, but you’re not very good at it, are you?” Warren shot back, and to be able to release the anger boiling in him was a relief. “Do you think you’re the only one who can’t forget it? You didn’t even know her. You and Andrew, you didn’t even see how special she was until I spelled it out to you.”
Now Jonathan stared at him with disbelief. “You’re sick,” he said, slowly. “Warren, how could you do that to her if she was your ex? How could you…”
“Right,” Warren said. “And the two Swedish twins you keep boasting about would have slept with you without that spell. And you didn’t write ‘hypnotize Buffy’ on the board. What did you think we were going to do with her afterwards, Captain Righteous?”
Jonathan looked away, and slumped a bit deeper into his chair. “I didn’t.. I didn’t realise,” he whispered. “I didn’t know.”
Didn’t know what, Warren could have asked, but he knew exactly what Jonathan meant. This didn’t make him feel more kindly towards Jonathan. “And when you signed up for the Supervillain gig?” he asked. “Dude, you’ve lived in this town all your life. Don’t tell me you thought we’d play it strictly DC and never kill anybody with lines. That works for Andrew, but not for you.”
“I didn’t think you’d play it Ultimate, either,” Jonathan said between clenched teeth. As insults went, this one wasn’t bad at all, considering Warren had poured scorn on the Ultimate version of Magneto only a few days before the Katrina incident, because in his opinion Millar robbed Magneto of all his intelligence and made him into a one-dimensional megalomaniac. But that was just it – Jonathan wasn’t stupid.
Warren sat down opposite of Jonathan, on the table with the monitors they used to keep Buffy under surveillance. His left hand went behind the screen. “Here’s a competition, Bilbo,” he replied. “Riddle me this. You tell me exactly what I feel, I’ll tell you exactly what you feel. Whoever comes closest decides what we’re going to to do next, the three of us. So if you still believe we should ourselves in, we’ll do that. If, that is, you’re spot on about me. If I come closer about you, you’ll shape up and there’ll be no more complaints.”
Jonathan sat straighter. It was easy to see he was hooked, but he tried to play it cool. “What about Andrew? How do you know he’d go along with…”
“I think we both know Andrew does what I tell him to do,” Warren said bluntly. “So, shoot.”
Some moments passed, and for some reason, Warren thought of their first Dungeons and Dragons where Jonathan had been ahead for a quite a while and then spoiled it because he couldn’t wait. That was what using magic did for you. You got used to flashy results after a short while. Technology, on the other hand, demanded infinite patience.
At last, Jonathan said, listlessly: “You don’t feel much of anything anymore. Except that you’re thrilled you got away with murder, and that you could frame Buffy for it. You’re sorry the girl is dead but mostly because this way, you can’t force her into being there for you, or punish her for leaving you. And whatever you’re planning, going to prison isn’t on the menu.”
Warren leaned back. “There’s a surprise,” he said drily. “Because I don’t think you’re really planning to go to prison, either, and it has nothing to do with me holding you back, Sparky. You feel cold and sick whenever you think of them both, Katrina and your beloved Slayer, and you’re also horrified and ashamed because something in you still wishes everything would have gone as planned. It just would be easier. But what you really want isn’t prison, or being a supervillain, or going back to plain old Jonathan. What you really want,” his right hand went to the pocket in his jeans, and he knew Jonathan didn’t notice, since he was too busy listening, “what you really want is for Buffy to kill you. And then it will be over, and you’ll finally be first for her in something. And then you’ll be at peace.”
The silence between them was thick and heavy, and Warren thought he could smell all the junk food they had eaten since going into hiding. For the first time in a while, he saw dawning respect in Jonathan’s eyes, mingled with the more recent abhorrence.
“You’re good,” Jonathan said hoarsely.
There was quite a lot Warren could have replied, from a smug “of course I am” to an impressed “and so are you”. But he was going to give Jonathan a worthy farewell. The old Jonathan, at least.
“See, Fredo”, he said, doing his best Al Pacino imitation while he put the sunglasses on with his left hand and pulled out the cerebral dampener with his right, “I know it was you. I know it was you.”
In the flash, he couldn’t see Jonathan’s expression, so he never found out whether Jonathan had recognised the quote, and understood. As the light from the dampener died down, Warren rose and saw Jonathan had the same blank gaze as Katrina had had. Everything else was wiped away from the brown eyes, and he knew he’d never see his own decay in Jonathan ever again.
***
Coming next, and last: You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss...
On the other hand, looking up my mail was quite the thrill. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Here's the fourth of the Five Things Which Never Happened To Warren. I've already started on the final vignette, but first, read this one...
IV.
Hanging out with Jonathan and Andrew was a bit like starting to die, and Warren knew it. He had shared a few classes with Jonathan in High School, of course, but they hadn’t become friends then; they had barely exchanged a few words, though on two or three occasions they had rolled their eyes at the same idiocy, or recognized an allusion no one else got. As for the Wells brothers, he found both the dogs at the Prom and the monkeys at the play mildly entertaining, but not enough to remember their first names, and Andrew was a year younger anyway. He did remember Jonathan’s first name. Most of all, he remembered that as isolated and sniggered about as he himself was, Jonathan was laughed about more, and had the downtrodden look perfected through years which Warren swore he’d never wear himself. Jonathan had accepted the role they had assigned to him, it was as simple as that, and Warren never would.
To become friends with Jonathan and Andrew meant an implicit capitulation to Sunnydale. It meant Warren had resigned himself to staying here. It meant he had given in and had started to be swallowed by the Sunnydale miasma, and that one day it would spit him out with the rest of the creeps and freaks who never made it in the real world. The knowledge was oddly soothing for a time, numb as he felt after Katrina had left. Besides, if Jonathan and Andrew had one thing going for them, it was that Warren never had to pay attention to his words; he could talk about whether Saavik would have worked better than Valeris in ST VI without anyone looking at him with condescending amusement. Moreover, he was smarter than both of them and became the leader without much effort. It wasn’t a bad feeling, being looked up upon. For a time, it was enough.
For a time.
Then looking at Jonathan and seeing himself started to become more and more unbearable. Andrew he didn’t mind as much, because Andrew was such a child anyway. But Jonathan was his own age, he might not have been as intelligent, yet he was by no means stupid, he had some genuine skills as a warlock. And he had tried to kill himself once already. Hearing Jonathan bring up his pathetic memories of that glamour spell he had been foolish enough to end, or of the Prom where he had been singled out to give a speech devoted to the Slayer who had taken Katrina and with her Warren’s chance of a future away from Sunnydale made Warren wonder whether this was how he, too, was going to end, sooner or later. Boasting of a few gadgets, with the look of a dog grateful for scraps, and with the prospect of another suicide attempt on the horizon.
It was this prospect that made him start their career as supervillains.
This, too, worked, for a time. The Slayer was by no means the invincible warrior they had thought her to be. Actually, she was quite pathetic, with her attempts to get a job, ending in Doublemeat Palace, of all the places. At this point, the supervillain gig had started to bring in cash, and Warren thought he was entitled to feel smug, watching her on his surveillance cameras in her awful red and white stripes and cow hat and her inability to return to College again, or indeed to have any kind of fun, if one excepted those marathon sex sessions with Spike which looked quite entertaining on video but didn’t seem to make her happy, either. Served her right. If anyone was a loser doomed for an early death, it was her, not him.
Then Warren saw Katrina again, and his carefully reconstructed world shattered, like the glass splitters surrounding her after he had dealt her that final, fatal blow. It was all he could do to keep it together and save their collective asses, and who was the one to spoil it afterwards by giving him that holier-than-thou look? Jonathan. Of course. Watching Jonathan watching him would drive him insane if he didn’t put a stop to it sooner or later. So Warren decided to make it sooner.
Shaking Andrew loose for an evening was tricky, because Andrew on his own was a security risk. Not to mention he might think Warren was trying to cut him loose. As it turned out, Andrew thought no such thing. He had a remarkable capacity for belief, which was useful. “Don’t let me down on this, Number One,” Warren said, entrusting Andrew with collecting information on some demonic something or the other they could use to hide better from the Slayer, and Andrew, blue eyes wide open, and obviously pleased by the sensation of Warren’s hand on his shoulder, assured him he wouldn’t.
If Andrew was the ideal Trusted Lieutenant, Jonathan was anything but.
“Where is Andrew?” he demanded suspiciously as soon as he had realised Andrew was gone. Warren explained about the mission, and Jonathan looked somewhat mollified, but only barely. Unwashed, wild-eyed, and twitchy, he certainly was Jack Torrance material. If Jack Nicholson had been pint-sized and not inclined to smile.
“Relax, Sparky,” Warren said. “The truth is, I wanted to talk with you. About what happened. That’s what you’re thinking about all the time, isn’t it?”
“I thought we weren’t to talk about it ever again,” Jonathan said, voice still edgy with distrust.
“Well yes, but you’re not very good at it, are you?” Warren shot back, and to be able to release the anger boiling in him was a relief. “Do you think you’re the only one who can’t forget it? You didn’t even know her. You and Andrew, you didn’t even see how special she was until I spelled it out to you.”
Now Jonathan stared at him with disbelief. “You’re sick,” he said, slowly. “Warren, how could you do that to her if she was your ex? How could you…”
“Right,” Warren said. “And the two Swedish twins you keep boasting about would have slept with you without that spell. And you didn’t write ‘hypnotize Buffy’ on the board. What did you think we were going to do with her afterwards, Captain Righteous?”
Jonathan looked away, and slumped a bit deeper into his chair. “I didn’t.. I didn’t realise,” he whispered. “I didn’t know.”
Didn’t know what, Warren could have asked, but he knew exactly what Jonathan meant. This didn’t make him feel more kindly towards Jonathan. “And when you signed up for the Supervillain gig?” he asked. “Dude, you’ve lived in this town all your life. Don’t tell me you thought we’d play it strictly DC and never kill anybody with lines. That works for Andrew, but not for you.”
“I didn’t think you’d play it Ultimate, either,” Jonathan said between clenched teeth. As insults went, this one wasn’t bad at all, considering Warren had poured scorn on the Ultimate version of Magneto only a few days before the Katrina incident, because in his opinion Millar robbed Magneto of all his intelligence and made him into a one-dimensional megalomaniac. But that was just it – Jonathan wasn’t stupid.
Warren sat down opposite of Jonathan, on the table with the monitors they used to keep Buffy under surveillance. His left hand went behind the screen. “Here’s a competition, Bilbo,” he replied. “Riddle me this. You tell me exactly what I feel, I’ll tell you exactly what you feel. Whoever comes closest decides what we’re going to to do next, the three of us. So if you still believe we should ourselves in, we’ll do that. If, that is, you’re spot on about me. If I come closer about you, you’ll shape up and there’ll be no more complaints.”
Jonathan sat straighter. It was easy to see he was hooked, but he tried to play it cool. “What about Andrew? How do you know he’d go along with…”
“I think we both know Andrew does what I tell him to do,” Warren said bluntly. “So, shoot.”
Some moments passed, and for some reason, Warren thought of their first Dungeons and Dragons where Jonathan had been ahead for a quite a while and then spoiled it because he couldn’t wait. That was what using magic did for you. You got used to flashy results after a short while. Technology, on the other hand, demanded infinite patience.
At last, Jonathan said, listlessly: “You don’t feel much of anything anymore. Except that you’re thrilled you got away with murder, and that you could frame Buffy for it. You’re sorry the girl is dead but mostly because this way, you can’t force her into being there for you, or punish her for leaving you. And whatever you’re planning, going to prison isn’t on the menu.”
Warren leaned back. “There’s a surprise,” he said drily. “Because I don’t think you’re really planning to go to prison, either, and it has nothing to do with me holding you back, Sparky. You feel cold and sick whenever you think of them both, Katrina and your beloved Slayer, and you’re also horrified and ashamed because something in you still wishes everything would have gone as planned. It just would be easier. But what you really want isn’t prison, or being a supervillain, or going back to plain old Jonathan. What you really want,” his right hand went to the pocket in his jeans, and he knew Jonathan didn’t notice, since he was too busy listening, “what you really want is for Buffy to kill you. And then it will be over, and you’ll finally be first for her in something. And then you’ll be at peace.”
The silence between them was thick and heavy, and Warren thought he could smell all the junk food they had eaten since going into hiding. For the first time in a while, he saw dawning respect in Jonathan’s eyes, mingled with the more recent abhorrence.
“You’re good,” Jonathan said hoarsely.
There was quite a lot Warren could have replied, from a smug “of course I am” to an impressed “and so are you”. But he was going to give Jonathan a worthy farewell. The old Jonathan, at least.
“See, Fredo”, he said, doing his best Al Pacino imitation while he put the sunglasses on with his left hand and pulled out the cerebral dampener with his right, “I know it was you. I know it was you.”
In the flash, he couldn’t see Jonathan’s expression, so he never found out whether Jonathan had recognised the quote, and understood. As the light from the dampener died down, Warren rose and saw Jonathan had the same blank gaze as Katrina had had. Everything else was wiped away from the brown eyes, and he knew he’d never see his own decay in Jonathan ever again.
***
Coming next, and last: You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-08-06 07:25 am (UTC)I know what you mean, but...
Date: 2003-08-06 06:58 pm (UTC)oh...
Date: 2003-08-06 09:45 am (UTC)just one of those crystal clear beginning lines that let you know exactly how the rest of the story will go in mood and feeling. Perfect.
And yeeeeegh - it's the Warren I remember and hated - the creepy matter of factness about his actions and his contempt for Jonathan's vulnerability.
Brilliant, as always - I read the other two pieces and loved them.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-06 11:58 am (UTC)As has been said, this is the closest to something that could really have happened in S6 that you've come. Well, could have happened if the writers didn't need to maintain a certain status quo until the finale. And that's what's great about AUs, they are so absolutely unforgiving.
The thing is...
Date: 2003-08-06 07:03 pm (UTC)But yes, this was meant as something which could have happened in season 6. Just as the others were meant as something which could have happened in the earlier seasons, if such and such had happened. Warren is just further gone at this point.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 12:19 am (UTC)Hanging out with Jonathan and Andrew was a bit like starting to die, and Warren knew it.
Perfect first line, and perfect reasoning about the genesis of Warren's plans.
“Right,” Warren said. “And the two Swedish twins you keep boasting about would have slept with you without that spell. And you didn’t write ‘hypnotize Buffy’ on the board.
It's good to see someone call Jonathan on that ... even if it's Warren. There were no pure souls in the Trio.
In his opinion Millar robbed Magneto of all his intelligence and made him into a one-dimensional megalomaniac.
... and in the middle of being disturbed, I find myself applauding his good taste. I have ranted that very rant more than once *g*.
That was what using magic did for you. You got used to flashy results after a short while.
Which was always Jonathan's essential problem: he wanted to take the short cut.
What you really want is for Buffy to kill you. And then it will be over, and you’ll finally be first for her in something. And then you’ll be at peace.
Ouch. Completely spot-on assesment of Jonathan's mood at that point, I think, even if he did manage to pull out of it well enough to tip Buffy off in Seeing Red.
In the flash, he couldn’t see Jonathan’s expression, so he never found out whether Jonathan had recognised the quote, and understood.
A worthy farewell, indeed, and a decidedly spooky ending. The lingering traces of respect and kinship make the act all the more horrifying.
Well now...
Date: 2003-08-07 05:20 am (UTC)No, there aren't. People tend to forget this about Jonathan. I remember being surprised when, around "Life Serial", there were complaints that Jonathan would never go for the supervillain career or do this kind of stuff. Bearing "Superstar" in mind, of course he would.
Warren, critic-at-large:
<i>... and in the middle of being disturbed, I find myself applauding his good taste. I have ranted that very rant more than once</i>
Quite. I have to admit though your comments in this direction actually inspired Warren's...
<i>The lingering traces of respect and kinship make the act all the more horrifying.</i>
What I was going for. There had to be one vignette showcasing Warren at his worst.
Re: Well now...
Date: 2003-08-10 12:20 am (UTC)I keep planning to write a post about the tendency of people - characters and fans alike - to let Jonathan off lightly and forget his less positive personality traits. He may always have come through when the chips were really down (notably in Superstar and Seeing Red) but in most cases the situation would never have arisen if he'd been brave enough to do something sooner.
Most of the time, Jonathan was angry, bitter and wanted everything to be easy. I think that makes him a far more interesting character, personally ...
I have to admit though your comments in this direction actually inspired Warren's...
Hee. Obviously I've been ranting even louder than I thought.
However, rewatching the episode, I noticed that we see Willow whenever a violent, angry thought is spoken, not Warren, except in the final breakdown when it's all about remorse and we see both express it.
I wasn't sure up until we got to the scene in the backyard, and we started hearing things that could be taken two ways: Willow talking about Tara, or Warren talking about Katrina. For the latter interpretation to be possible, there has to be some genuine Warren in there, somehow - Willow had no way of knowing about that relationshpi and the way it mirrored her own. (Of course, it's possible that this was all an acident and an illusion ... but I think some aspect of Warren actually being there makes the episode more interesting and there's nothing to rule it out.)
What if Willow had somehow managed to channel the real thing? And wouldn't it have been hell for Warren as much as for Willow, being melted into one another?
Yes indeed - and likely the exchange of one hell for another. No wonder they were decidely unstable.
I'm not sure there is much they could do about it, without Willow's magic, but what they would do to Warren and Andrew would decidedly not be pleasant.
Definitely not. Katrina, Tara, Jonathan, now Willow - I don't think 'hey, this is really Amy's fault, and Willow did flay me!' would cut much ice.
the optimist in me thinks they made it to Canada.
No witch = no locator spell. If they got out of there fast enough, they'd be free as birds, since Buffy and co. were hardly free to run off hunting for them.
Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-10 05:59 am (UTC)Please do. Along with the post-Chosen Andrew, Buffy & unicorn, of course.
He may always have come through when the chips were really down (notably in Superstar and Seeing Red) but in most cases the situation would never have arisen if he'd been brave enough to do something sooner.
Precisely. Jonathan could have stopped Warren way before the later got himself ersatz superpowers. And understandable as his motivation for the Superstar spell was, it wasn't that different from the cerebral dampener. Moreover, funny as Life Serial was for the viewers, it truly was a hellish day for Buffy and ruined her not-so-great life even further, and there was an element of sadistic voyeurism in all three geeks watching. She was their own personal video game heroine there. And Jonathan, who was proud his task was the toughest, really knew her as a person.
Re: Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-10 01:04 pm (UTC)Just my opinion like.
a random lurker
Re: Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-11 03:25 am (UTC)In any case, he rewrote the relationships (or lack of same) with the Scoobies (and all Sunnydalians, for that matter) to what he wanted them to be; just as Warren using the dampener on Katrina gave him the opportunity to rewrite their relationship. So I think the comparison is still valid.
Jonathan, of course, did what Warren was incapable of and broke it off, rather than see Buffy & Co. be hurt any favour. Which is the difference between them.
Re: Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-11 05:09 am (UTC)I agree with you about rewriting the relationships though. Actually both Tara and Xander did simular things but they unlike Jonathan, Warren or Willow learned their lesson. What gets me about Jonathan is he was willing to use the dampener on someone who was a stranger just not on someone they knew and who was 'real'. which is deeply disturbing if you think about it.
Re: Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-11 03:34 am (UTC)I need to borrow Earshot from a friend and do some research into the geography of Ohio, but both shall be along eventually *g*.
And understandable as his motivation for the Superstar spell was, it wasn't that different from the cerebral dampener.
I don't think he really understood what he'd done in Superstar, which was part of the reason he agreed to the 'hypnotise girls' part of the plan with such alacrity and enthusiasm. Maybe Buffy should have used smaller words. (I do think, though, that if they'd used the dampner on her he might have had a last minute attack of conscience, especially if Warren wanted to go first ... argh. That sounds like a plot bunny.)
Moreover, funny as Life Serial was for the viewers, it truly was a hellish day for Buffy and ruined her not-so-great life even further, and there was an element of sadistic voyeurism in all three geeks watching.
I'm conflicted about Life Serial, in the best possible way - it makes me giggle, then I feel complicit with the Trio for laughing at Buffy's pain. And in spite of the damage they're doing, they seem about as threatening as puppies here. The episode is full of those 'but they can't be really bad, right? They're so cute and amusing and geeky ...' moments that make the later episodes so creepy.
And Jonathan, who was proud his task was the toughest, really knew her as a person.
That's what it boils down to. To Andrew, Buffy was a fictional character. To Warren, she was some kind of symbol of female power he felt compelled to destroy. To Jonathan, though, she was Buffy Summers - a girl he knew and had a crush on. I've always thought that there was an element of personal resentment in his attitude towards her that fuelled his supervillain career, nd he never really admitted that on screen.
Re: Jonathan
Date: 2003-08-11 01:14 pm (UTC)