The one week late Power Play review
May. 19th, 2004 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFrom ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sabine101:
selenak
londo_mollari
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And might I say Londo is put out that he's not in purple?
Meanwhile, thanks tobimo, I've watched Power Play. I find myself out of tune with general fandom again - after gurgling with delight at that defiant last outburst of comedy, The Girl in Question, which ticked many people off, I'm somewhat coldly disposed towards the very serious Power Play, which most people seem to have enjoyed. Not that I hated it; it just was a distant experience for me.
Personally, I blame Terry Prattchet. Guards! Guards! made it impossible for me to take any secret society seriously again. Mind you, with the society in question transforming into a cocktail party once Angel got accepted, methinks Mr. Fury might have read Prattchet as well, but still, in order to buy the menace of the Black Thorn, we have to be impressed at first, and I wasn't.
Now, the concept makes sense to me. We've seen this before, btw. With the Senior Partners as the cunning opponent in the background, you're stuck with the problem that there can be no physical showdown, due to them being incorporeal. (And while this wasn't explicitly stated before, it was implied by Holland Manners in Reprise.) So you need a second level physical opponent or two which Our Heroes can take out. Sounds familiar? Hello, First Evil, Ubervamps and Caleb.
Angel going on the offensive also makes sense, though I wish that we had seen some hints of the plan before the end of Time Bomb. Angel being able to hack into the books less so, but okay, let's wave that aside. Let's also wave aside trying to figure out Lindsey's motivation. He really is a walking plot device this season, which is a pity, though I never was a fan of Lindsers. What's highly interesting is that faked evilness re: Fred aside, he still did kill Drogyn, did agree to ruin Whatever The Senator's Rival Was Called's reputation and did ignore the proverbial girl in the alley in order to convince the Senior Partners. What with Angel determined to go out in a blaze of Black Thorn destruction with all his friends, there is no reason to suppose he made contingency provisions in order to rectify any of the above. (Aside from providing for Nina and her family, of course.) So these were sacrifices for The Cause. Human sacrifices. Which comes down to the age old "does the end justify the means?" question, which usually gets answered with "no" in the Jossverse. Hm.
Okay, clearly all the Wesley/Lilah'shippers and Wes/Gunn'shippers upset about Wesley's canonical Fred obsession were going for the wrong target in their ire. Compare and contrast: Wesley thinks Gunn is responsible for Fred dying a gruesome death. Gunn, meet blade in the gut. Wesley thinks Angel is responsible for Fred dying a gruesome death. "We must save him. He would do the same for us."
Yes, Angel still outranks everyone else currently alive in the scale of Wesley's affection. And of course Wesley signs on to the "let's go to hell by taking out the Senior Partner's primary lackeys" plan at once. It occurs to me that this switch from vengeance to mercy (also seen re: Illyria in Time Bomb) might be the product of his restored memories. In any case, for Wes, it's downright healthy.
Speaking of Illyria, her scenes with Spike and later Drogyn were downright adorable. (But I'm not sure what it says that I felt more for Illyria in this episode than for any of the regular gang.) My Amy Acker admiration continues to grow. And thank you, Mr. Fury, for the BTVS continuity shout-out by letting Spike point out the parallels to his season 4 situation. If Hamilton has killed the Blue One, I shall be most disgruntled, but I'm reasonably sure he hasn't.
Hamilton: is obviously posed to be the opponent in the big one-to-one fight in the finale. As I said: Caleb, revised.
And lastly, Spike's line about being intimate with Angel ("only the one time...well...") should make slashers simultanously happy and angry (whaddaya mean, once?).
sabine101:selenak
londo_mollari
join the HERD:
1. Copy and paste this: [font color="username"][b]username[/b][/font] into your journal.
2. Replace square brackets with html brackets
And might I say Londo is put out that he's not in purple?
Meanwhile, thanks to
bimo, I've watched Power Play. I find myself out of tune with general fandom again - after gurgling with delight at that defiant last outburst of comedy, The Girl in Question, which ticked many people off, I'm somewhat coldly disposed towards the very serious Power Play, which most people seem to have enjoyed. Not that I hated it; it just was a distant experience for me.Personally, I blame Terry Prattchet. Guards! Guards! made it impossible for me to take any secret society seriously again. Mind you, with the society in question transforming into a cocktail party once Angel got accepted, methinks Mr. Fury might have read Prattchet as well, but still, in order to buy the menace of the Black Thorn, we have to be impressed at first, and I wasn't.
Now, the concept makes sense to me. We've seen this before, btw. With the Senior Partners as the cunning opponent in the background, you're stuck with the problem that there can be no physical showdown, due to them being incorporeal. (And while this wasn't explicitly stated before, it was implied by Holland Manners in Reprise.) So you need a second level physical opponent or two which Our Heroes can take out. Sounds familiar? Hello, First Evil, Ubervamps and Caleb.
Angel going on the offensive also makes sense, though I wish that we had seen some hints of the plan before the end of Time Bomb. Angel being able to hack into the books less so, but okay, let's wave that aside. Let's also wave aside trying to figure out Lindsey's motivation. He really is a walking plot device this season, which is a pity, though I never was a fan of Lindsers. What's highly interesting is that faked evilness re: Fred aside, he still did kill Drogyn, did agree to ruin Whatever The Senator's Rival Was Called's reputation and did ignore the proverbial girl in the alley in order to convince the Senior Partners. What with Angel determined to go out in a blaze of Black Thorn destruction with all his friends, there is no reason to suppose he made contingency provisions in order to rectify any of the above. (Aside from providing for Nina and her family, of course.) So these were sacrifices for The Cause. Human sacrifices. Which comes down to the age old "does the end justify the means?" question, which usually gets answered with "no" in the Jossverse. Hm.
Okay, clearly all the Wesley/Lilah'shippers and Wes/Gunn'shippers upset about Wesley's canonical Fred obsession were going for the wrong target in their ire. Compare and contrast: Wesley thinks Gunn is responsible for Fred dying a gruesome death. Gunn, meet blade in the gut. Wesley thinks Angel is responsible for Fred dying a gruesome death. "We must save him. He would do the same for us."
Yes, Angel still outranks everyone else currently alive in the scale of Wesley's affection. And of course Wesley signs on to the "let's go to hell by taking out the Senior Partner's primary lackeys" plan at once. It occurs to me that this switch from vengeance to mercy (also seen re: Illyria in Time Bomb) might be the product of his restored memories. In any case, for Wes, it's downright healthy.
Speaking of Illyria, her scenes with Spike and later Drogyn were downright adorable. (But I'm not sure what it says that I felt more for Illyria in this episode than for any of the regular gang.) My Amy Acker admiration continues to grow. And thank you, Mr. Fury, for the BTVS continuity shout-out by letting Spike point out the parallels to his season 4 situation. If Hamilton has killed the Blue One, I shall be most disgruntled, but I'm reasonably sure he hasn't.
Hamilton: is obviously posed to be the opponent in the big one-to-one fight in the finale. As I said: Caleb, revised.
And lastly, Spike's line about being intimate with Angel ("only the one time...well...") should make slashers simultanously happy and angry (whaddaya mean, once?).
