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selenakThere is a woman who gets bashed and vilified even more than Buffy herself in the fandom, and I'm not talking about SMG. No, I'm thinking of the writer who wrote nearly as many episodes as Joss himself and has, no matter whether you like her or not, been elementary in shaping the show for most of its run: Marti Noxon.
So, before I take off to Italy for 11 days, and in view of the show's imminent end, I'd like to pay tribute to Marti, without whom BTVS would have been lacking many of its interesting and/or enjoyable aspects.
For starters, she's responsible for practically all the kinkier sexual subtext - or not so sub-text, going all the way back to her very first episode, "What's My Line II", in which we see Drusilla playing S/M games with Angel who gets to taunt Spike about being too tame for Dru. It was Marti who had Faith exchange S/M allusions with Angel in "Consequences", to say nothing of Faith almost raping and strangling Xander earlier in the same episode. (I could go on about fannish double standards for Faith and Spike here, but I won't, not now.) Marti gave us VampWillow with her penchant for torturing chained Angel for kinks, Oz and Veruca having scratchy, wild werewolf sex, and, naturally, Buffy and Spike having erotic but dysfunctional sex in season 6. It didn't surprise me to learn Marti was an uncredited co-writer of the Angel episode "Dear Boy" and responsible for the broadcast version of the crucial Darla/Angel confrontation at the end. (Compare it with the shooting script version by David Greenwalt (at Psyche's), and the difference is rather pointed - in favour of Marti, I might add.)
Which leads me to the next point: it's not just the edgier sexuality; she's excellent with the emotions as well. Said scene between Darla and Angel is an excellent example; there's so much anger and lust and resentment and familiarity in only a few words. And of course, she's the queen of break-up scenes: Buffy and Angel in "The Prom", Willow and Oz in "Wild at Heart" ("All my life, I never loved anything else"), Willow and Oz, again, in "New Moon Rising". At the same time, she can do the quiet, relationship-building moments as well: Tara and Willow in "New Moon Rising", especially the final scene, Willow's simple "I am", and the beautiful image of blowing out the candle, Xander telling Anya he's in love with her (and why) in "Into the Woods". My personal favourite of Marti's "quiet" relationship scenes would the Buffy/Angel encounter in "Forever"; I'm not a B/A'shipper, but I found it deeply touching, and utterly believable.
Willow is a character whom Marti (mostly) excels writing about; in addition to "Wild at Heart" and "New Moon Rising", I'd like to point to the arrival of Darth Rosenberg in "Villains" and the Willow scenes in "Conversations with dead People" which (as was revealed recently in the Succubus Club interviews) were in fact written by Marti. (And then, of course, there's VampWillow in "The Wish", our very first indication of Willow's darker side.) Considering it was Marti who voted for Amber Benson to play Tara when Joss first had doubts, I think it's safe to say Ms. Rosenberg and her love life might have turned out quite differently if not for Marti.
Writing a follow-up to such an outstanding classic as "The Body" was is not an assignment I'd wish on anybody, but Marti handled it with aplomb. "Forever" is, in my opinion, one of the all-time best episodes of the show. It gave us the days after Joyce's loss just as "The Body" gave us the immediate hours, showed us Buffy struggling to keep it all together and finally breaking down in the arms of her sister (still one of the best Buffy/Dawn scenes ever), gave us Giles quietly mourning for Joyce by listening to the Eric Clapton record they had heard together in "Band Candy", showed us Willow's continuing penchant for quick magical fixes in difficult emotional situations by her careless behaviour towards Dawn, and reaffirmed the friendship between Dawn and Spike, an important element of the fifth season.
Lastly, though she is primarily a "dark" writer, Marti can do humour as well. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (which it occurs to me includes yet another Marti break-up scene - Cordy and Xander) is certainly the funniest episode of season 2. "Buffy vs Dracula" is the best tongue-in-cheek take on Dracula I've ever seen, managing to include all the stock elements - castle, arrival via coffin with earth, Renfield(=Xander), three "brides" indulging themselves with one of our heroes, Dracula arriving in enthralled victim's bedroom, etc. - and putting a Buffy twist on them. Buffy's line to Dracula, re: his identity - "you're sure about that? 'Cause I've fought plenty of pimply fanboys who called themselves Lestat" - remains one of my favourites, and the twist on the usual scene which ends the Hammer film versions of Dracula (i.e. after the Count is destroyed, the heroes depart and we see the dust reassembling for another sequel), Buffy outwaiting Dracula's various reassemblings until he takes his misty self away, had me in stitches as well. And then there's the Buffybot - brought to hilarious life by Jane Espenson in "Intervention", true, but Marti's use of her in "Bargaining" retains the comedy while adding pathos as well.
So, glitches like Willow-as-addict in "Wrecked" notwithstanding, I'm grateful for Marti's contributions to the Buffyverse and wish her the best for the future.
So, before I take off to Italy for 11 days, and in view of the show's imminent end, I'd like to pay tribute to Marti, without whom BTVS would have been lacking many of its interesting and/or enjoyable aspects.
For starters, she's responsible for practically all the kinkier sexual subtext - or not so sub-text, going all the way back to her very first episode, "What's My Line II", in which we see Drusilla playing S/M games with Angel who gets to taunt Spike about being too tame for Dru. It was Marti who had Faith exchange S/M allusions with Angel in "Consequences", to say nothing of Faith almost raping and strangling Xander earlier in the same episode. (I could go on about fannish double standards for Faith and Spike here, but I won't, not now.) Marti gave us VampWillow with her penchant for torturing chained Angel for kinks, Oz and Veruca having scratchy, wild werewolf sex, and, naturally, Buffy and Spike having erotic but dysfunctional sex in season 6. It didn't surprise me to learn Marti was an uncredited co-writer of the Angel episode "Dear Boy" and responsible for the broadcast version of the crucial Darla/Angel confrontation at the end. (Compare it with the shooting script version by David Greenwalt (at Psyche's), and the difference is rather pointed - in favour of Marti, I might add.)
Which leads me to the next point: it's not just the edgier sexuality; she's excellent with the emotions as well. Said scene between Darla and Angel is an excellent example; there's so much anger and lust and resentment and familiarity in only a few words. And of course, she's the queen of break-up scenes: Buffy and Angel in "The Prom", Willow and Oz in "Wild at Heart" ("All my life, I never loved anything else"), Willow and Oz, again, in "New Moon Rising". At the same time, she can do the quiet, relationship-building moments as well: Tara and Willow in "New Moon Rising", especially the final scene, Willow's simple "I am", and the beautiful image of blowing out the candle, Xander telling Anya he's in love with her (and why) in "Into the Woods". My personal favourite of Marti's "quiet" relationship scenes would the Buffy/Angel encounter in "Forever"; I'm not a B/A'shipper, but I found it deeply touching, and utterly believable.
Willow is a character whom Marti (mostly) excels writing about; in addition to "Wild at Heart" and "New Moon Rising", I'd like to point to the arrival of Darth Rosenberg in "Villains" and the Willow scenes in "Conversations with dead People" which (as was revealed recently in the Succubus Club interviews) were in fact written by Marti. (And then, of course, there's VampWillow in "The Wish", our very first indication of Willow's darker side.) Considering it was Marti who voted for Amber Benson to play Tara when Joss first had doubts, I think it's safe to say Ms. Rosenberg and her love life might have turned out quite differently if not for Marti.
Writing a follow-up to such an outstanding classic as "The Body" was is not an assignment I'd wish on anybody, but Marti handled it with aplomb. "Forever" is, in my opinion, one of the all-time best episodes of the show. It gave us the days after Joyce's loss just as "The Body" gave us the immediate hours, showed us Buffy struggling to keep it all together and finally breaking down in the arms of her sister (still one of the best Buffy/Dawn scenes ever), gave us Giles quietly mourning for Joyce by listening to the Eric Clapton record they had heard together in "Band Candy", showed us Willow's continuing penchant for quick magical fixes in difficult emotional situations by her careless behaviour towards Dawn, and reaffirmed the friendship between Dawn and Spike, an important element of the fifth season.
Lastly, though she is primarily a "dark" writer, Marti can do humour as well. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (which it occurs to me includes yet another Marti break-up scene - Cordy and Xander) is certainly the funniest episode of season 2. "Buffy vs Dracula" is the best tongue-in-cheek take on Dracula I've ever seen, managing to include all the stock elements - castle, arrival via coffin with earth, Renfield(=Xander), three "brides" indulging themselves with one of our heroes, Dracula arriving in enthralled victim's bedroom, etc. - and putting a Buffy twist on them. Buffy's line to Dracula, re: his identity - "you're sure about that? 'Cause I've fought plenty of pimply fanboys who called themselves Lestat" - remains one of my favourites, and the twist on the usual scene which ends the Hammer film versions of Dracula (i.e. after the Count is destroyed, the heroes depart and we see the dust reassembling for another sequel), Buffy outwaiting Dracula's various reassemblings until he takes his misty self away, had me in stitches as well. And then there's the Buffybot - brought to hilarious life by Jane Espenson in "Intervention", true, but Marti's use of her in "Bargaining" retains the comedy while adding pathos as well.
So, glitches like Willow-as-addict in "Wrecked" notwithstanding, I'm grateful for Marti's contributions to the Buffyverse and wish her the best for the future.
