politics, then geeking

First, the Bush regime is looking for a way to postpone the elections. This is exactly the sort of thing I was afraid of the minute BushCo stole the election; it’s what prompted this vignette a while back (hey, Jenn, if I write that book real fast you think we could have it on the shelves by Nov. 2nd?), and I wish I could say it surprised me, but I don’t think much of anything our fascist government does could surprise me at this point.

In *completely* other news, Emily and I went on an Angel binge yesterday and watched pretty much the entire second half of the season. We have now finished watching it and comments are behind the cut tag (which means if you’re reading this on LJ and want to read my comments you’ll have to click through to mizkit.com. Also there are Buffy spoilers so if you’re very paranoid don’t read it.). :)

WAUGH! Wesley! And Fred! And Lindsey! And CORDELIA. And AUGH!

And wow.

I liked it. I liked the ending, although I wouldn’t have minded the final cut being immediately after Angel saying, “Personally, I’d kinda like to slay the dragon,” instead of ten seconds later. Ten seconds later was fine, but I thought the dragon line woulda been a good one to go out on.

I didn’t think it was a cliffhanger ending, which I’ve heard people complain about. But then, I didn’t think the end of Buffy season 5 was, either. I think what happens(ed) next doesn’t matter, because what we’ve seen is sort of a real acceptance of the reality of their situation. Maybe they’re all going to die (things look particularly bad for Gunn), but they’re going to go down fighting the good fight.

And that’s the best you can get, in the Buffy universe. The worst you can get in the Buffyverse is random, useless death (Joyce, Tara); the best you can do is to die well. There are no happy endings in the Buffy world.

Which brings me, horribly and achingly, to Wesley and Fred. *Waugh*. But…Wes had earned his death. He died well. He died in the arms of the woman he loved (“Would you like me to lie to you now?” AUGH!). He died fighting the good fight, and given that .every. .time. Wesley .ever. got .anything., he lost it again…I think death might’ve been the kindest thing for him. He’d lost everything, and I think he got as close to a happily ever after as he could, given that he was one of the poor bastards in the Buffy universe. One of the heroes. Not, perhaps, one of the good guys, although *certainly* not one of the bad guys. But one of the heroes. He died well. It’s all you can ask.

Fred. Man. *Fred*. Emily and I spent Fred’s last episodes curled up around pillows wailing, “NOT FRED! You can’t kill FRED!” But Fred as a character had run her course. She went from crazy mouse chick to warrior scientist woman, found love and lost it again, and finally found her one true love. Immediately after which, she died. Buffyverse sucks. But for the actor, Illyria was a great way to be able to go. Fred was done; her story was finished. Illyria had a whole ‘nother story and it was a chance to play a new character. I liked that. And I’d like to think that Illyria will survive the demon fight, and that she’ll become a force for good.

*Lindsey*. Out of all the deaths in 5th season, and boy were there a lot, Lindsey’s is the one I’m having the most trouble with. I didn’t see it coming, not until that very final scene, with Lindsey washing the blood off his hands and Loren, *poor* Loren, standing in the background with a bleak expression. I went, “Oh, *SHIT*!” at that point, because I saw what was going to happen.

And… *man*. *Man*. “You don’t kill me. *Angel* kills me. *Angel*…”

And… *man*! See, I think he’s right. Except he’s not, because for Lindsey, it was always about Angel, but for Angel, it was never about Lindsey. But…but I’m not sure that Lindsey didn’t deserve it to be Angel, anyway. I mean, it’s like the buildup for the Methos/MacLeod fight, and suddenly Jo Schmoe comes along and chops one of their heads off. “*You* don’t kill me. *MacLeod* kills me!” It’s… cheating, to have somebody else do it. Bitter, bitter ashes. Somehow I think Lindsey…deserved better. I think he deserved to die at Angel’s hands.

But what’s also honestly shocking to me is that Angel had him killed. It was…pragmatic, but it wasn’t *right*. Loren killed Lindsey in cold blood, on Angel’s orders. It was an execution. And while Lindsey was, yeah, one of the bad guys…I don’t know. Maybe Lindsey said it himself: Heroes don’t sit around waiting to see what happens. They act. And we know that even if Lindsey’s on the right side right now, very soon he’s going to betray the good guys, because that’s what Lindsey *does*. Every time he starts to come around, he ends up showing his true nature (he’s just like Rayek) and stabs people in the back. But… man. It shocked me. And I’m not sure I approve. It would have been okay if Angel’d killed him, but… man.

There’s a bunch of other stuff I want to hit on, but I’ll do it later, because this has gotten v. long already and it’s been all about the finale, which is obviously the last impression I was left with. Oh! Oh! Oh! Guess I’m not done yet.

“You randomly show up for coffee and the world’s *not* ending?” I was *delighted* with the Connor stuff, in the final episode and in the earlier one where he was re-introduced. I’m so glad he got his life. I’m so glad he understood so quickly–instantly–what Angel had done for him. And I’m glad he proved to be his father’s son, and came to fight the good fight. And finally, I’m glad that he left Angel at the end, to *live* his life, because without that, everything would have been meaningless, and it was good he understood that.

They did well; they did really, really well with all the Last Day stuff. Gunn going to help Anne (Anne! They used Anne again! I was hoping/thinking she’d show up one more time!). Ted’s opinion is that Gunn really was asking Anne, when he asked her what she’d do if she knew it was all for naught, and she said she’d be ready for the next wave to hit. That he really needed to hear that answer.

And poor bloody Wesley, taking care of Illyria. And Loren singing. He knew then that he was going to have to kill Lindsey, I think. God. And Spike getting shit-faced drunk so he’d be brave enough to do the poetry slam. OH. MY. GOD. *tud* And… it was just all really, really nice.

Rumor has it that Joss wants to do four movies about four different characters, but that he won’t do any of them unless he’s sure he can do all of them. Spike is one of them; Emily and I figure you’ve *got* to do the Holy Trinity: Spike, Buffy, Angel. And the only other one who really makes sense is Faith. We’d thought the fourth might be Wes, but he’s DEAD, and we considered Giles, but Faith is so much tidier, with the two vampires, two Slayers thing going on there. That would be very cool.

Ok, that’s more than enough for now.