Buffy Quibble

OK, it's minor, but this one keeps bugging me: At the beginning of Season 1, Buffy was 15 when she started Sophomore year. At the beginning of Season 7, it is implied that Dawn is starting Freshman year, but she is 16. What gives? Sloppy writing? Was she actually taking high school classes before, but in a random building? In fact, for those three years, where were all the teenagers going to school? They could have spent two lines explaining all this, but instead these questions are left to haunt me. *sigh*

What do you care what I do in my free time?

Another minor detail that bugs me. This one came up in the Heroes marathon I was watching this weekend, but it's a perennial theme in Charmed. Now, I'm not claiming that the latter is literature, and I'm withholding judgment on the former for now, but people do watch these things, and gain life lessons from them, so this has impact. The phrase and concept I take exception to is the taboo against "personal gain". Now, granted, if you're only using your powers for selfish things, with no regard for who you hurt along the way, you belong in Arkham Asylum. But if you're generally fairly selfless, and help people as much as you can with your powers, what's the harm in making your own life a little easier or more pleasant too? I guess part of it is that TV tends to be a little simplistic, but out here in the real world, anyone who gives and gives and gives and never gets anything back gets burned out on giving pretty quickly. Ask any hospice worker or Child Protective Services official- you have to take personal time, and do nice things for yourself, at least once in a while. Of course, friends and family can also pamper you, but the idea that you cannot do anything for personal reasons or personal benefit is patently ridiculous, and possibly dangerous to those who would follow the advice of these shows.
Furthermore, Charmed presents its three main characters as Wiccan, and there is nothing in Wicca to say that magic cannot be performed on yourself, for whatever reasons. In fact, if one were seeking, say, love, Wiccan tradition frowns on performing a love spell on someone else, and instead advocates performing magic on oneself. You would perhaps start with a bath with essential oils and/or herbs to boost confidence and allure, then do a candle spell to make yourself receptive to love, and to be able to recognize and embrace it when it comes along. This might include a stone or other good luck charm which you would then carry with you to attract potential lovers, and also to remind yourself of the confidence of the bath and the receptivity of the candles. All of this could easily be considered personal gain, but Wicca has no problem with this, as long as you are improving yourself and not coercing anyone else. I suppose a superhero code might be a little different, but Superman is always saving Lois Lane, which may well put him out of position to help others in the city, or those in other countries. Batman may not actively get anything out of his crime-fighting activities, but there is a definite sense that he does it more because he's bored than out of any goodwill towards humanity. Selflessness over selfishness is always a good choice, and I can't condemn these shows for advocating it, but I do feel that they go a little far in pushing the idea down people's throats.

Something odd

OK, so it's a little thing, but it bugs me. Most of Babylon 5 is so well thought out, and all the alien cultures are so internally consistent, that little lapses in logic really stand out. The one that really bugs me is as follows: they live on a space station. All resources, like water, must be shipped in from planets. Food must either be grown or shipped in. Therefore, one would think that they would hoard these things, make sure to finish every crumb on their plates and every drop in their glasses. But no! People walk away from meals all the time, often in public cafes and such. Sometimes they order drinks, including alcohol, which I would assume to be expensive and difficult to obtain, then leave the room entirely before taking more than a sip. Sometimes they are mostly done with a drink or a meal, and they have a reason to leave, but don't take the last couple of bites or last gulp of drink as they go, which seems incredibly wasteful, especially out in space. I've seen people do that last bite/gulp thing a lot, in real life and in other shows, and its lack here disrupts my suspension of disbelief to a distressing degree.