[ SECRET POST #3103 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3103 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.


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03.


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04.
[Guardians of the Galaxy]


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05.
[Lawrence of Arabia]


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06.


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07.
[Grimm]


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08. [SPOILERS for Hannibal]



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09. [SPOILERS for Buffy the Vampire Slayer]



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10. [WARNING for non-con/underage]



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11. [repeat]


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12. [WARNING for rape]



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13. [WARNING for rape]



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14. [WARNING for abuse]



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15. [WARNING for rape]

[Mad Max: Fury Road]


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16. [WARNING for rape]


















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #443.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

09. [SPOILERS for Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
http://i.imgur.com/bhXg4So.png

[silverr]

You can love Riley out of spite, or you can see him as the rebound/palatte cleanser/vanilla guy who helped Buffy realize that sex didn't need to end in humiliation, mutilation, and death.

[(Anonymous)]

Riley was okay. He just wasn't the right person for Buffy, and Buffy wasn't the right girl for him, either.

[silverr]

Agree 100%

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, this.

[philstar22]

I liked Riley right up until he started having problems with having a girlfriend stronger than him. Then when the show had the gall to blame Buffy for their breakup, I was done and couldn't enjoy him on rewatches. On my first watch I loved him in season 4.

[leisuretime]

This is not a characterization of Riley's view of that relationship that I agree with at all. So many people turn his problem with Buffy "not needing him" into him not being able to handle "having a girlfriend stronger than him," but I've always seen it as more of an emotional thing.

Everyone wants to feel wanted and needed by their loved ones, and I don't think it's out of line for Riley to not feel emotionally satisfied in the relationship Buffy was willing to have. Basically, Riley and Buffy weren't compatible people, ultimately. That doesn't make Riley a piece of shit for being the one to call it off.

[sabotabby]

He was a jerkface about it, though. She was dealing with her mom's death and suddenly becoming a parent to her little sister and run-of-the-mill saving-the-world things; she didn't have time or spoons to deal with what he wanted from her.

Also he was cowardly about how he broke it off, sneaking around getting his dick blood sucked, etc.

Full confession: I overidentify with Buffy here, because I've been in a much more mundane version of that set-up.

[philstar22]

Seriously. She had to be a mom. She had to be strong. And being strong was who she was. But no, he wanted her to be vulnerable and feminine and "need him" even if that wasn't what she actually needed. It was absolutely about his male ego and about him being selfish.

[(Anonymous)]

Remember as far as anybody knew at the point when Riley left, Joyce was fine. She died a few eps after he'd left.

I'm a fan of RIley as well and I agree with them not being compatible together. Buffy has a lot to deal with (well always) but that season in particular, and she felt like she couldn't confide in Riley for all of that. Riley, on the other hand, had just left the job of his dreams, where he THOUGHT he was doing tons of good, into a situation where he was suddenly confronted by just how little he was actually accomplishing. And as he told Xander, he could tell she was pulling away from him, and couldn't figure out why. That's on top of the 'she is stronger than me' issues which he had mostly dealt with? His issue was mostly that she at times treated him like glass, when he felt he was capable of more. Was he? Who knows.

All that said, him going to the suckhouses will always be a huge WTF is going on moment for me

[(Anonymous)]

God, the suckhouses were just a case where the writers were trying to be DARK and EDGY and it totally didn't work.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, me too. Well, I always thought he was a boring character, but I liked him well enough until that part of the series!

[silverr]

Agreed.

(I didn't quite feel as strongly that you did that the blame was placed on Buffy for the breakup, though. I felt it was pretty clear that Riley's inability to accept Buffy was 100% his issue. Buffy reasonably balked at being given an ultimatum. To me her only 'fault' was taking a while to realize that having someone to lean on now and again didn't make her weak.)

(But ultimately I didn't want to see her with Riley long-term anyhow.)

[(Anonymous)]

Anya's death still gets to me. ;_;

[(Anonymous)]

If you love Riley out of spite, one day you'll realize that he's not the right guy for you, and you loved him for the wrong reason. ;)

Personally, I liked Riley. I don't think he was set up to be the rebound guy, I think they wanted a legitimate love interest, but I did like the way it played out on the show, especially Riley's confession (to Xander) that he loved Buffy but he knew she'd never love him.

They weren't bad for each other, but neither were they right for each other, and the relationship was always going to fracture and break under stress, but in a much more realistic way than Buffy's other love implosions.

I liked that they could both be nice people, but that it just doesn't work out for them.

[(Anonymous)]

What's sad about this secret is that most people are commenting on your Riley subsecret and not Anya. This is how real life imitates art.

Anyway, in real life, there was some issues between the actress and either the network or the showrunners, so that might account for the rather perfunctory send-off. Her death was really given short shrift in that episode, which may be why you didn't get spoiled for it. Compared to other deaths, it was treated like an afterthought and sort of turned into an afterthought for anyone who wasn't specifically an Anya fan.

[silverr]

Huh, really? I mean, her death did happen in the last episode iirc, and it was the incredible sudden brutality of it that was the gutpunch.

ETA: I did find some interviews, and it sounds like she might have had some clashes with Marti Noxon about Anya's character arc. (Emma's also apparently said that she'd come back and play Anya again if Joss made a movie.) Joss wasn't that involved in s&, though he did write "Chosen" iirc.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT, I wish I could remember exactly what it was, but there was something going on behind the scenes in S7, whether it was issues with the contract or creative differences with the storyline or what. Unfortunately, the boards where I used to hang out back in the day - where all the good info was - are gone and deleted now.

I should have clarified, though, that I don't think any of the issues were with Joss. Could have been Marti et al, or it might have been issues around the contract. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter, but have to admit, my recollection at this point is fuzzy. My main focus at the time was on other characters.

[silverr]

I found a page discussing some of it, but the links to "formerly unpublished excerpts" of an interview she did were dead.

Most of the commentors seemed to read "tension on the set" as Emma's dissatisfaction with one person (Marti), who wasn't open to the suggestions Emma was making about where she wanted the character to go.

I hadn't really thought of it from your perspective before though--that she was the only Scooby who didn't make it out. I guess they felt that with a battle that scale, they had to off someone. (I tear every time that Xander just misses finding her body, which is I think the scene that the secret's picture is from.)

[(Anonymous)]

(Heh adding this from my phone because I'm still thinking about this instead of sleeping)
The more I think about it the more I see Anya's death as a reprise / callback to her "nobody will tell me why" speech in "The Body."

[shehasathree]

it was the incredible sudden brutality of it that was the gutpunch.

This. It totally worked for me, regardless of what extra-textual reasons there might have been for it. And by "worked for me", I mean, I think it had even more of an impact precisely *because* it was so quick and 'perfunctory'.

[lentils]

This is one of those deaths that I just pretend didn't happen. She was my favorite. So as far as I'm concerned, she's fine.