Cool Characters
Dec. 3rd, 2009 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljI saw a discussion about Buffyverse characters the other day, in which someone said they couldn't relate to Faith or Spike because they're "cool".
...at which point everyone else jumped on them and said "What do you mean they're cool? They're not cool really! They're just pretending! It's a defense mechanism!"
Which got me thinking.
Because, if you think about it, there are actually quite a lot of "cool" people in the Buffyverse. They're just... cool in different ways.
For instance...
Cool Kids Who Become Uncool
Cordelia. And Buffy. And Harmony.
All three are really cool at some point during their high school years. Cool without having to think about it. They just are, by virtue of their cool clothes, their cool friends, their cool attitudes, and their general coolness.
All are also rather selfish and ditzy. (Ditsy? Ditzy? Spelling, anyone?)
...and then they stop being cool. And life gets much more complicated - and much more interesting.
Cool As A Cover
This is a category for anyone who starts off as "uncool", and then deliberately sets out to make themselves cool.
People such as Spike. And Willow. And Amy. And possibly Wesley. And (arguably) Faith, even though we never actually saw her in non-cool form.
You could also put Dawn and Andrew in this category - because they certainly try...
Hidden Coolness
This is a special category for Giles. Because he's cool... underneath. It just doesn't emerge very often.
Just That Cool
Gunn. Oz. Illyria.
Dresses Cool
Angel, with the black coats and carefully moussed hair. Riley, with the blackops army gear. Wesley in the motorbike leathers.
They're all dressed as if they should be the coolest people ever - but really, they're all pretty much dorks.
Really NOT Cool
Xander. And Fred.
And you know, if I think about it, there's all this other stuff too. Angel, for instance, is instantly marked out by Cordelia and Buffy as really cool (certainly a lot cooler than all the other guys around the place). Fred might not be cool, but according to Harmony her love life is getting gossiped about by everyone. And Anya manages to get into the cool crowd very fast - when she wants to.
So, I guess my question is, what makes you say that someone is "really" cool, as opposed to just pretending?
Because I'd say that Spike is, in fact, authentically cool. What started out as a disguise became an entire attitude.
I'd tend to say that just about all the characters are authentically cool... at one point or another. They're just not statically stuck in coolness.
...thoughts?
...at which point everyone else jumped on them and said "What do you mean they're cool? They're not cool really! They're just pretending! It's a defense mechanism!"
Which got me thinking.
Because, if you think about it, there are actually quite a lot of "cool" people in the Buffyverse. They're just... cool in different ways.
For instance...
Cool Kids Who Become Uncool
Cordelia. And Buffy. And Harmony.
All three are really cool at some point during their high school years. Cool without having to think about it. They just are, by virtue of their cool clothes, their cool friends, their cool attitudes, and their general coolness.
All are also rather selfish and ditzy. (Ditsy? Ditzy? Spelling, anyone?)
...and then they stop being cool. And life gets much more complicated - and much more interesting.
Cool As A Cover
This is a category for anyone who starts off as "uncool", and then deliberately sets out to make themselves cool.
People such as Spike. And Willow. And Amy. And possibly Wesley. And (arguably) Faith, even though we never actually saw her in non-cool form.
You could also put Dawn and Andrew in this category - because they certainly try...
Hidden Coolness
This is a special category for Giles. Because he's cool... underneath. It just doesn't emerge very often.
Just That Cool
Gunn. Oz. Illyria.
Dresses Cool
Angel, with the black coats and carefully moussed hair. Riley, with the blackops army gear. Wesley in the motorbike leathers.
They're all dressed as if they should be the coolest people ever - but really, they're all pretty much dorks.
Really NOT Cool
Xander. And Fred.
And you know, if I think about it, there's all this other stuff too. Angel, for instance, is instantly marked out by Cordelia and Buffy as really cool (certainly a lot cooler than all the other guys around the place). Fred might not be cool, but according to Harmony her love life is getting gossiped about by everyone. And Anya manages to get into the cool crowd very fast - when she wants to.
So, I guess my question is, what makes you say that someone is "really" cool, as opposed to just pretending?
Because I'd say that Spike is, in fact, authentically cool. What started out as a disguise became an entire attitude.
I'd tend to say that just about all the characters are authentically cool... at one point or another. They're just not statically stuck in coolness.
...thoughts?
