I've always been very fond of Buffy, and I didn't understand why so many people seem to dislike her. She always tried to *hard* to do the right thing!
I've also noticed recently that I seem to have a much more... *motherly* attitude toward teen characters and heroes than I used to. I was recently reading a young adult book I enjoyed a lot (Lirael, by Garth Nix, in case you are curious. :) ), and one of the main characters was a young girl who felt like none of the adults understood her, and who kept doing all these dangerous things, and instead of feeling for her and admiring her, I found I wanted to shake her, and take her to the nearest adult, so they could protect her, and keep her from doing such dangerous things in the future. Alas, I guess I am no longer the target audience for such books. ;)
Also, I recently watched Criminal Minds, and I completely agree with you about the things I like about it. I also like that feeling that the main characters are always very aware of how close they are to becoming the things they hunt, and how afraid they are of crossing the line.
I guess I wish... that it gave more agency to the victims, that the FBI wasn't presented as the *only* way to protect people, as you said. There was this one episode that I really liked -- I don't know if you've gotten to it yet -- where a young woman was hunted in the forest, and she actually protected *herself*, and turned the tables on her two assailants. I really liked that -- the feeling that people might need help sometimes, but they are also capable of thinking for *themselves*, and protecting *themselves*.
But a lot of the time, it feels like the non-FBI characters can't really do anything to protect themselves unless the profilers get involved, and that seems to me a large part of why the series makes you feel so unsafe. It's not just that anybody can be attacked at any time -- it's the feeling that the only way to *survive* such an attack is to have someone like the FBI to protect you, and if you don't have that, then you will probably die.
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I've also noticed recently that I seem to have a much more... *motherly* attitude toward teen characters and heroes than I used to. I was recently reading a young adult book I enjoyed a lot (Lirael, by Garth Nix, in case you are curious. :) ), and one of the main characters was a young girl who felt like none of the adults understood her, and who kept doing all these dangerous things, and instead of feeling for her and admiring her, I found I wanted to shake her, and take her to the nearest adult, so they could protect her, and keep her from doing such dangerous things in the future. Alas, I guess I am no longer the target audience for such books. ;)
Also, I recently watched Criminal Minds, and I completely agree with you about the things I like about it. I also like that feeling that the main characters are always very aware of how close they are to becoming the things they hunt, and how afraid they are of crossing the line.
I guess I wish... that it gave more agency to the victims, that the FBI wasn't presented as the *only* way to protect people, as you said. There was this one episode that I really liked -- I don't know if you've gotten to it yet -- where a young woman was hunted in the forest, and she actually protected *herself*, and turned the tables on her two assailants. I really liked that -- the feeling that people might need help sometimes, but they are also capable of thinking for *themselves*, and protecting *themselves*.
But a lot of the time, it feels like the non-FBI characters can't really do anything to protect themselves unless the profilers get involved, and that seems to me a large part of why the series makes you feel so unsafe. It's not just that anybody can be attacked at any time -- it's the feeling that the only way to *survive* such an attack is to have someone like the FBI to protect you, and if you don't have that, then you will probably die.
*hugs you randomly, just because* :)