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shadowkat[It's back, I was posting in my DW journal, which has hardly any readers. Well actually it appears to have two. Hell, you can never tell who is reading these things unless people actually pop in and say something. Well, LJ has provided the "Your Guests" option which will tell you the people who visit your journal assuming they've agreed to the "your guests" option themselves. Don't worry, didn't do it. I find the idea odd. Anyhow below is my review of the Buffy S8 comic which I posted last night in the DW journal.]
After watching the TV show Defying Gravity - which is admittedly better than I expected, but suffers from some of the same problems as Grey's Anatomy, without the pluses of charismatic character actors like Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd, I finished reading issue 27 of Buffy S8 comic books, written by Jane Espenson and produced by Joss Whedon. Regarding Defying Gravity? If you have no stomach for sappy voice over-narratives and space soap operas (heavy on the soap, light on the space) - you're not going to like this show. I enjoyed it. But I'll be suprised if it makes it past one season, it's too sci-fi for the crowd that loves Grey's and it is too soapy/sentimental for the crowd that loves Lost and BSG.
Before reading the Buffy S8 comic - I had read several reviews by people online regarding it, notably the top three:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormwreath, beer_good_foamy, and aycheb...haven't seen 2maggie2's yet. So, I went in with rather low expectations - and ended up being rather surprised. This happens a lot with reviews - someone will review a film, book, or tv show - I'll see it and wonder, okay, were we reading or watching the same thing? Because that's not how I saw or read or experienced it at all. One of the most frustrating things and entertaining things about human interaction is how diverse and at times contradictory our perceptions of shared experiences and reality truly are. How many times have you spoken to someone at work or in your family or online and thought - where is the person coming from? I just don't get how they can possibly see it that way? And wander off shaking your head in bewilderment? [As an aside and this has zip to do with the above, I've had an epiphany about something recently - I finally get the problem with the golden rule. You know that whole thing about do unto others as you would have them do unto you? That works except for one teeny little problem - what if the other person doesn't want to be treated the way you do? What if their ideas on how they want to be treated are contradictory or completely different than yours? What if they don't see or define things/words/concepts the same way you do? Have completely different perspective? Tis a condundrum, isn't it? ]
There's a little speech at the end of Lessons in S7 of Buffy. It ends with this line:
"It's not about right. It's not about wrong. It's about power."
I think that is the overarcing theme of the series. How people handle power and what power means. Who has it. Who wants it. What they are willing to do to take it. And once they have it - how they handle it. [And I hope to write a longer meta about it and how S6 Buffy relates to it at another point in time, assuming of course, I find the time or energy to do it.]
My guess is to a degree supported by comments made in assorted commentaries and interviews by the writers themselves - stating that they wanted to explore power, and the dark impulses of power.
In Retreat we are reintroduced to OZ. A character who left the series in Season 4 because of his inability to control his own dark impulses, the wolf inside him. In Fear Itself - he warns Willow about her power and says that he knows what it is like to lose control of it, to give into it, and let it take over...he's no longer there, it's the wolf. Later in Wild at Heart - he does give in to the wolf, he does let it take over with Veruca, and it almost causes him to kill Willow. He leaves because of it. Veruca tells him to let it take control - to give into his darker nature, that this is who he is, to be the wolf. The wolf, she says, is the best part of him. The powerful part. The true part. As a wolf they are powerful. This is who they really are.
Veruca's speech in Wild at Heart reminds me of other speechs in the series.
1. Darla's to Angel in the episode Angel, where she tells him that he needs to give in to his true nature, that he is a vampire, to be who he is.
2. Crush - Drusilla says much the same thing to Spike - wires in the brain, they lie, you are a bad dog.
3. Smashed and Wrecked as well as The Killer in Me - Willow, who Amy tells to let herself loose, to give in to it. Unless you want to just sit at home by yourself like you did in high school. Rack states the same things in Wrecked - "you are powerful, give in to it".
4. Life Serial, Smashed, Wrecked, Doublemeat Palace, and Dead Things. Spike tells Buffy the same thing in Season 6. In Life Serial - he tells her that she is the slayer, dark, like him, that she doesn't belong out there. She's a hunter. His words in Life Serial, Smashed, Wrecked, Dead Things, and Doublemeat Palace echo Dracula's in Buffy vs. Dracula. He says in Dead Things the same line he says in Life Serial - you don't belong with them, you belong in the dark with me. And in Normal Again - he says: tell your friends about us - if they reject you, join me in the dark, if they accept you join them in the light. His line in Normal Again if you listen closely echoes Veruca's line to OZ, and it also echoes the First Evil's lines to Angel in Amends, and to Spike in Showtime and Bring on the Night.
Now, in Retreat Part II - we have the following bits of dialogue:
OZ: Sometimes I wanted to just...just relax and give in.
Buffy (whispers with a sort of wistful look of understanding): Just give in.[Like she did in S6 with Spike and has from time to time since, she struggles with the desire daily.]
OZ: I wanted to lose myself in it. But I didn't.
Instead he meets Bay who introduces him to another spiritual path.
OZ: It turns out the secret isn't in bottling up the wolf. The wolf doesn't like that. But in letting that energy pass through you into the earth, the sky, the living plants. Don't be a lake be a river. Have a life.
When I read this, I was reminded a bit of a scene between Buffy and Willow and Spike in Get it Done. Where Buffy tells Willow and Spike to stop bottling up their power, to use it to help her. To stop being afraid of it. She says something similar to Kendra in What's My Line - feel, don't bottle, your emotions give you power. But the problem is the power takes over - in Get it Done - Spike gives into his darker impulse, but the demon comes out, or Willow's eyes turn dark and she takes her power from someone else, just as Spike pulls his from a dead slayer's jacket. While Buffy - who is told by the shamans to take more power - to let the power of the demon enter her, she rejects it. The power in get it done is shown as a violating and corrupting force. Primal. Sexual in nature. The line between the violence of it and the sex blurred. Sex is power by the way, a lot of people don't see that - but in mythology, specifically Western mythology, such as the Celts, sex magic was often considered the most powerful magic available. It is the power that creates life. Up until relatively recently, sex was required to have children, to further our species. There is no power greater than the power to create life. Sex in nature creates life.
Note when OZ states have a life - he is shown sitting with Bay and his child and his dog.
In the flashbacks, we see him and Bay coming together...it is Bay who shows him the other way.
Buffy: I'm not a great quite sitter and looker.
OZ: It works when the moon is full. You feel the wolf approach. You let the wolf pass through you. Without taking you. And the wolf is pulled into the earth.
The metaphor here is the wolf represents the primal, the darker impulse, the power. OZ is powerful when he is the wolf. But if he can't control it, the power controls him. He is taken over by it. He is no longer human, he has no compass, no soul, he is wolf. Powerful - but it is the power that destroys, not the power that creates. When he denies the power, the aggression, the primal, dark impulses - represses them, pretends they don't exist - he also loses control. They control him not the other way around. It's what happens when we bottle up emotions - we let the emotions control us. Or rage - the rage takes over. Emotions as Buffy tells Kendra are power - but if we can't control them, we become the victim of our own emotions. A real life example - recently on the news a man went into a gym and killed over four women - opened fire and shot them. He was filled with hate, because he could not get a date, could not find a woman to love him and be his companion. It was bottled up inside him. He did not show his emotions. Instead he ranted and raved on the net and in his head. He bottled it up. Finally the emotions took control. And he lost himself to the hate and rage. He became the wolf. The wolf took control. In Joss Whedon's horror stories this is a common theme - the film Serenity is about what happens when you either do away with emotion, remove those powerful impusles or bottle them up in such a way that people go insane.
OZ tells Buffy that a man came to him, named Monroe, a great sufferer, who they helped. Monroe was so pleased he left to spread the word and brought back followers. Then suddenly they (OZ and his friends) discovered they had rival competition in Monroe. Monroe and his followers thought they'd found the best way and they were willing to get violent to prove it.
OZ: He went out into the world too soon. We blame ourselves. We got tempted, forgot to focus, to let the power pass through him. Now he heads a group that thinks like..
Willow:Like Veruca [Veruca and like Willow - who gives in herself to the darker impulse in Season 6.]
OZ: Yeah. They think the wolf is the best part of us. [Simone states it in Predators and Prey to Buffy - the slayer is the best part of us. Faith states much the same thing in Bad Girls and Faith, Hope, Trick as does Kendra at the end of What's My Line.]
Dawn: Hey! That's like Slayers. The Demon part is the part that you are and the old human part is the weak, rejected part that gets tossed aside..um that's how some wrong people might see it.
Dawn is making it rather black and white, which OZ has clearly stated above that it's not. He says that both parts are important. What hits me is something I remember from my old women's studies courses in college and myth and meaning lectures - "the demon woman". The woman is two things - the nice, pretty girl, who caters to the male needs, who shops, and has babies, and cooks, and nurtures - then she's the demon, the nag, the evil EVE, the temptress. The virgin Mother Mary, and the temptress Mary Magdelen in Christian mythos, or the temptress Lilith and the cursed Mother Eve. Whedon in the episode Family - writes about a male patriarch who informs Tara's friends that she is a demon. That upon her 18th birthday - when she becomes a "Woman" - her demon aspect will emerge. She will become powerful and they should watch out. Spike states, after proving this is not true, "That's just something to keep your women in line, isn't it? Clever, I like you."
In Celtic mythology - the goddess mythos was the mother - devourer and nuturer. Life and death circled within her. The Goddess is in some respects a metaphor or explanation for Mother Nature - who violently brings life into the world just as she violently removes it. Often blood was associated with the demon woman. During the full moon she'd bleed...and be unclean. Some cultures in ancient times would put her away from the rest of the tribe, secluded until her period of uncleaniness was over. The menstruation - which took place during the full moon or the hour of the wolf. Fearful that her blood would contaminate and hurt those around her. In other cultures she was worshipped during this period and placed with her sisters inside a red tent, pampered, and treated like royalty. Other things that are associated with demon woman are the tides and the full moon. Just as they are associated with the werewolf legends.
In Nightmares - S1, Hank Summers tells Buffy in her nightmare that he wants nothing to do with her, that she is obnoxious, whiny, weak. That she is the reason for his and Joyce's divorce. He could not wait to get away from her. That he is ashamed and disgusted by her. [Hank note has no male sons, only a daughter and at that time an only child. Later, two daughters.] How could he stand her. The nightmare happens on the day that Buffy is supposed to go to the ice capades that evening with her father, they do it once a year. He is picking her up. Instead they have this discussion, as they are having it - the boy Billy shows up - the source of the nightmares coming to life.
The nightmares that follow include failing a test, being buried alive, having to dig her way out of her own grave, and becoming a vampire because the Master has killed her. Of these nightmares - all but the first have ironically come true in some off-kilter way. (Well the first and not becoming a vampire.) Hank Summers and Buffy's nightmare about becoming a demon are revisted in Restless, where Hank is notably missing from her dream, but Riley is there as is Adam and it is Riley and Adam who call her a demon, a killer.
OZ relates a story about Monroe's clan attacking them and how Bay, his wife, turns into a wolf and saves his life. Bay states she probably made a mistake making him a matyr.
Monroe believes the wolf is the best part of him. This is similar actually to Simone's group of rogue slayers - who have decided the slayer is the best part. It also fits with Harmony - who sees being a vampire the best thing ever. Contrast with Angel and Spike who struggle with themselves - both want to be men, but enjoy the power of being vampire - they both saw becoming a vampire as the best thing that happened to them at the time, now both to a degree deeply regret it. The power - becoming a vampire - was also a sexual experience for both men, it entailed drinking the blood of their vampire mothers - from their vampire mothers chests.
Or there's Willow - who equally struggles with this duality. As she tells Buffy in Wrecked - who was I without the magic? Just some ordinary girl. Tara didn't know that girl, she didn't love that girl. But Oz did. And here Willow is sitting opposite OZ and OZ has everything she wants, the wife, the baby, the home, the life. OZ also has control over his power - something Willow continues to struggle with. But then, OZ, never had Willow's insecurities. Another person to contrast Willow and OZ with is Amy. Amy is in some respects Willow's Monroe. Willow and Buffy attempted at one point to help Amy - way back in Season 1, Witch. But they failed. Amy goes down the same road her mother did. She gives into the power, lets it take her over. Amy feels that with the power - she controls what is around her, when in reality it is the power controlling her.
Buffy wants to know if OZ can help her control her power, help her learn not to use it? It's an odd question. Because I don't believe that Buffy's power is controlling her. It is not the same as OZ's or Willow's. Buffy has never used her power to take what she wants from the world and she has never used it to make what she wants it to be. Power for Buffy has always been a bit of a burden. She's tempted, but it is a temptation she fights. And in some respects she preferred her life before she got the power. As she tells Holden Webster in Conversations with Dead People: "I have all this power, I didn't ask for it. I don't want it." The difficulty Buffy is having with power is with perception. Or how others perceive her power. She's begun to buy into some of the propaganda that Twilight has been spreading.
This brings me to Twilight...who remains a mystery. It is at the moment unclear who Twilight is supposed to represent in Buffy's life. He could be just about anyone. There are quite a few characters that I am willing to bet you that he's definitely not, just because it is simply not logical nor plausible thematically, characterwise, or plotwise for Twilight to be these characters. There are others...that yes, there is a way you could plausibly do it but you'd have to do a bit of finagling to explain it.
My guess, however, is Twilight is not who most fans think he is, my guess is that he is a character that has been around since the first season of the series and people have not so much forgotten as overlooked because the character is not magical or supernatural in nature. But the character, if you pay close attention, has been mentioned and referred to indirectly throughout the series, and several of the villians have been metaphorical references to this character or how Buffy is struggling with her relationship with this specific character. The character I'm referring to is one that the writer has neatly skipped around, refusing to tell us that much about the character, and in some respects has spoken volumns about the character the person's absence. Yet, this character has, if you think about it, been directly mentioned or appeared in just about every season of the series, with the possible exception of Season 7 and 8.
Going back to OZ...OZ discusses how the power can be controlled if they want it bad enough. But if they don't, if it doesn't take root in their soul - it can be more dangerous than not trying at all...which is when the wolf pops out of the trees and tries to attack them. Tempering power is a difficult thing. OZ is stating that it is not about giving up the power, but choosing to find other ways to fight your battles without relying solely upon that power. In other words - when you fight people - you might want to use other means. Buffy - tends to veer away from fighting humans or using her super-powers with humans. As she stated to Willow and Xander - in regards to Warren - we don't kill humans. We leave the human authorities to handle people like Warren. This approach reminds me a little of Spike and the chip. How Spike had to find other ways of dealing with people that did not include hitting or hurting them physically. It is also an addiction metaphor - power can be addictive. The ability to take life, to destroy it, is no less powerful than creating it.
Buffy's group is overwhelmingly female, with a few male friends or supporters. Andrew is described as the womanly man by Bay. Twilight's group in contrast is overwhelmingly male. As is the organization - the military.
Riley does not quite appear to be the minion that I originally thought he was. I'm guessing double agent. He says a couple of things to Twilight that lead me to believe he's not quite on board. He says that he believes it is unlikely they are in the mountains, and seems to be attempting to get Twilight to look elsewhere. Granted his input is not really that helpful to either party, Twilight or Buffy, but Riley was not known for being overly effective - he never had very much power in the series. He's, like it or not, cowboy guy. At any rate, I am guessing that Riley will be the one who tells Buffy who Twilight is and if I'm right about who Twilight is - well, the twist will be similar in some respects to what they attempted to do in As You Were, but instead of being a parallel episode to Into the Woods, it will be a parallel to The I in Team. I'm seeing a potentially huge plot-twist coming up on this one, assuming of course that I'm right and they don't go in a different direction like they've done before with Season 8.
The writer's have a lot of fun with punnery. Not much of a fan of puns. I find them a bit obvious and grating, but Jane Espenson loves them to pieces.
Twilight: Kill the man that found this "spike". [They are discussing a "spike" in magic usage not an actual "spike" or "spike" the person. Like I said, fun with puns.]
or
"It's a pretty big Spike."
Riley:"Spike?"
"A Spike in Magic Usage."
Which for reasons that escape me lead some people online to think that Spike might be Twilight. You're kidding right? Because if you aren't? That's insane troll logic. Even if Spike had returned from his sojourn with Angel - evil and killing people, it would still be insane troll logic. Personally, I think the writer is poking fun and the word is meaningless - it's bit like the sex jokes they did with Kenny and Dawn. Wouldn't read anything more than that into it. The writers did the same thing with numbered t-shirts in the 6th season of Buffy. They like to make fun of their fans and themselves. They also like to tease their fans. [Per example - see Girl in Question, Superstar, Normal Again, and Once More With Feeling.]
Will Spike and Angel factor into the story at some point? Yes. Just not in the way most people seem to think. Twilight is not going to be Spike or Angel. Nor is Giles, Xander, Andrew, or Riley (obviously). Like I stated above, I think Twilight is going to be someone that people have discounted. Someone whose betrayal will be from Buffy's perspective far worse than all of these people put together...someone that Buffy has been avoiding dealing with and many of her issues regarding who she is as a slayer and her role in the world revolve around. I think Twilight is Hank Summers. Because Hank Summers knows Buffy better than anyone. And Hank Summers is the ghost that haunts all of her relationships with men. She stops seeing him more or less after I Will Always Remember You. When she returns from the dead - she barely mentions him. And when her mother dies - she mentions him constantly, at least three times in two episodes, asks for him, wonders if he called. When he doesn't...she gives up and rarely says his name. Her male abandoment issues stem from her father.
Each of Buffy's relationships outside of Satsu have been with older men. Men like Angel (247 years older), Spike (126 years), Robin Wood (10-15 years), and Riley (5-6 years, if that). And without exception all these older men have left Buffy. Angel and the Master enter her life as her father leaves it. So does Giles. In Season 2, Angel takes her skating, her father is barely there [What's My Line]. And her father doesn't do anything for her birthday that year, instead she sleeps with Angel[Surprise]. In Season 3, her father stands her up and sends flowers instead with two tickets - stating he has to work.[Helpless]. In Season 4 - she visits him, but is crushed by her visit with Angel in LA[I Will Always Remeber You and Something Blue]. In Season 5 - he doesn't return phone calls.[The Body and Forever]
In Season 6 - they are doing everything possible to avoide the father taking Dawn away from Buffy.[Bargaining]. In fact, Willow even states in Bargaining that the Buffbot can't answer the phone because if Hank Summers calls he'd know it wasn't Buffy and their cover would be blown. And in Normal Again - Buffy's parents are together, she sees both her mother and her father. In Season 7...he isn't mentioned, but Caleb shows up as "Father Caleb" in a priest's outfit and calls Buffy a dirty girl. Caleb shows up again in "Always Darkest" - and is presiding at Buffy's wedding, as Father Caleb, Hank Summers no where in sight.
Twilight to me, sounds a lot like Ted, a lot like The Mayor, a lot like The Master, and a lot like Adam, but also, possibly, a bit like Hank Summers. The father...that lies unmentioned in the tale - yet all of the above in some way or other represent. What do we know about Hank Summers? What does Hank Summers do for a living? Why is he never present? And what has he been doing? We know he went abroad at some point - because Buffy states he's in Europe when Giles suggest Hank take Dawn. She says he took off with another woman. And we know he may have another family, although it is never expressly stated. We aren't told much. He is the character that lies outside on the margins, undefined, lurking. And this is a horror tale. The sick mother has already made an appearance. Where oh where is the disapproving father? Up until now, we've seen him portrayed by big bads such as Caleb, The Mayor and The Master. Also the Watcher Council and Giles - who are, admittedly, the nicer version.
OZ's discussion about power, about restraining the beast inside is a recurring theme in this tale. But it's not the only one. And the bit about Monroe...is in some respects a statement about many of the people in Buffy's own past including Amy, Jonathan, Warren, Riley, Willow...the list goes on. Spike and Angel are a bit more like OZ, except Angel bottles his up and treats it like Mr. Hyde - a separate entity, while Spike like OZ struggles with his. But neither are Monroe. Buffy fears Willow will become a Monroe - one of the many reasons Buffy has come to OZ for help. But is Buffy right this time? Is OZ's way the only answer? I don't think it is. I think there's different types of power and I don't think Buffy necessarily is struggling with her's as much as she believes. The difference between Buffy and the others, is she never really wanted it.
She always wanted to be the normal girl. She sacrifices the slayer in S5 to save the normal girl. She does the opposite of what he sister states. In S7, she shares her power instead of taking more. Unlike Oz, Buffy doesn't relish the power. She enjoys it, but I think she pushes against it. Her difficulty is she is buying what those around her are saying, she's allowing them to define her power and who she is.
After watching the TV show Defying Gravity - which is admittedly better than I expected, but suffers from some of the same problems as Grey's Anatomy, without the pluses of charismatic character actors like Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd, I finished reading issue 27 of Buffy S8 comic books, written by Jane Espenson and produced by Joss Whedon. Regarding Defying Gravity? If you have no stomach for sappy voice over-narratives and space soap operas (heavy on the soap, light on the space) - you're not going to like this show. I enjoyed it. But I'll be suprised if it makes it past one season, it's too sci-fi for the crowd that loves Grey's and it is too soapy/sentimental for the crowd that loves Lost and BSG.
Before reading the Buffy S8 comic - I had read several reviews by people online regarding it, notably the top three:
stormwreath, beer_good_foamy, and aycheb...haven't seen 2maggie2's yet. So, I went in with rather low expectations - and ended up being rather surprised. This happens a lot with reviews - someone will review a film, book, or tv show - I'll see it and wonder, okay, were we reading or watching the same thing? Because that's not how I saw or read or experienced it at all. One of the most frustrating things and entertaining things about human interaction is how diverse and at times contradictory our perceptions of shared experiences and reality truly are. How many times have you spoken to someone at work or in your family or online and thought - where is the person coming from? I just don't get how they can possibly see it that way? And wander off shaking your head in bewilderment? [As an aside and this has zip to do with the above, I've had an epiphany about something recently - I finally get the problem with the golden rule. You know that whole thing about do unto others as you would have them do unto you? That works except for one teeny little problem - what if the other person doesn't want to be treated the way you do? What if their ideas on how they want to be treated are contradictory or completely different than yours? What if they don't see or define things/words/concepts the same way you do? Have completely different perspective? Tis a condundrum, isn't it? ] There's a little speech at the end of Lessons in S7 of Buffy. It ends with this line:
"It's not about right. It's not about wrong. It's about power."
I think that is the overarcing theme of the series. How people handle power and what power means. Who has it. Who wants it. What they are willing to do to take it. And once they have it - how they handle it. [And I hope to write a longer meta about it and how S6 Buffy relates to it at another point in time, assuming of course, I find the time or energy to do it.]
My guess is to a degree supported by comments made in assorted commentaries and interviews by the writers themselves - stating that they wanted to explore power, and the dark impulses of power.
In Retreat we are reintroduced to OZ. A character who left the series in Season 4 because of his inability to control his own dark impulses, the wolf inside him. In Fear Itself - he warns Willow about her power and says that he knows what it is like to lose control of it, to give into it, and let it take over...he's no longer there, it's the wolf. Later in Wild at Heart - he does give in to the wolf, he does let it take over with Veruca, and it almost causes him to kill Willow. He leaves because of it. Veruca tells him to let it take control - to give into his darker nature, that this is who he is, to be the wolf. The wolf, she says, is the best part of him. The powerful part. The true part. As a wolf they are powerful. This is who they really are.
Veruca's speech in Wild at Heart reminds me of other speechs in the series.
1. Darla's to Angel in the episode Angel, where she tells him that he needs to give in to his true nature, that he is a vampire, to be who he is.
2. Crush - Drusilla says much the same thing to Spike - wires in the brain, they lie, you are a bad dog.
3. Smashed and Wrecked as well as The Killer in Me - Willow, who Amy tells to let herself loose, to give in to it. Unless you want to just sit at home by yourself like you did in high school. Rack states the same things in Wrecked - "you are powerful, give in to it".
4. Life Serial, Smashed, Wrecked, Doublemeat Palace, and Dead Things. Spike tells Buffy the same thing in Season 6. In Life Serial - he tells her that she is the slayer, dark, like him, that she doesn't belong out there. She's a hunter. His words in Life Serial, Smashed, Wrecked, Dead Things, and Doublemeat Palace echo Dracula's in Buffy vs. Dracula. He says in Dead Things the same line he says in Life Serial - you don't belong with them, you belong in the dark with me. And in Normal Again - he says: tell your friends about us - if they reject you, join me in the dark, if they accept you join them in the light. His line in Normal Again if you listen closely echoes Veruca's line to OZ, and it also echoes the First Evil's lines to Angel in Amends, and to Spike in Showtime and Bring on the Night.
Now, in Retreat Part II - we have the following bits of dialogue:
OZ: Sometimes I wanted to just...just relax and give in.
Buffy (whispers with a sort of wistful look of understanding): Just give in.[Like she did in S6 with Spike and has from time to time since, she struggles with the desire daily.]
OZ: I wanted to lose myself in it. But I didn't.
Instead he meets Bay who introduces him to another spiritual path.
OZ: It turns out the secret isn't in bottling up the wolf. The wolf doesn't like that. But in letting that energy pass through you into the earth, the sky, the living plants. Don't be a lake be a river. Have a life.
When I read this, I was reminded a bit of a scene between Buffy and Willow and Spike in Get it Done. Where Buffy tells Willow and Spike to stop bottling up their power, to use it to help her. To stop being afraid of it. She says something similar to Kendra in What's My Line - feel, don't bottle, your emotions give you power. But the problem is the power takes over - in Get it Done - Spike gives into his darker impulse, but the demon comes out, or Willow's eyes turn dark and she takes her power from someone else, just as Spike pulls his from a dead slayer's jacket. While Buffy - who is told by the shamans to take more power - to let the power of the demon enter her, she rejects it. The power in get it done is shown as a violating and corrupting force. Primal. Sexual in nature. The line between the violence of it and the sex blurred. Sex is power by the way, a lot of people don't see that - but in mythology, specifically Western mythology, such as the Celts, sex magic was often considered the most powerful magic available. It is the power that creates life. Up until relatively recently, sex was required to have children, to further our species. There is no power greater than the power to create life. Sex in nature creates life.
Note when OZ states have a life - he is shown sitting with Bay and his child and his dog.
In the flashbacks, we see him and Bay coming together...it is Bay who shows him the other way.
Buffy: I'm not a great quite sitter and looker.
OZ: It works when the moon is full. You feel the wolf approach. You let the wolf pass through you. Without taking you. And the wolf is pulled into the earth.
The metaphor here is the wolf represents the primal, the darker impulse, the power. OZ is powerful when he is the wolf. But if he can't control it, the power controls him. He is taken over by it. He is no longer human, he has no compass, no soul, he is wolf. Powerful - but it is the power that destroys, not the power that creates. When he denies the power, the aggression, the primal, dark impulses - represses them, pretends they don't exist - he also loses control. They control him not the other way around. It's what happens when we bottle up emotions - we let the emotions control us. Or rage - the rage takes over. Emotions as Buffy tells Kendra are power - but if we can't control them, we become the victim of our own emotions. A real life example - recently on the news a man went into a gym and killed over four women - opened fire and shot them. He was filled with hate, because he could not get a date, could not find a woman to love him and be his companion. It was bottled up inside him. He did not show his emotions. Instead he ranted and raved on the net and in his head. He bottled it up. Finally the emotions took control. And he lost himself to the hate and rage. He became the wolf. The wolf took control. In Joss Whedon's horror stories this is a common theme - the film Serenity is about what happens when you either do away with emotion, remove those powerful impusles or bottle them up in such a way that people go insane.
OZ tells Buffy that a man came to him, named Monroe, a great sufferer, who they helped. Monroe was so pleased he left to spread the word and brought back followers. Then suddenly they (OZ and his friends) discovered they had rival competition in Monroe. Monroe and his followers thought they'd found the best way and they were willing to get violent to prove it.
OZ: He went out into the world too soon. We blame ourselves. We got tempted, forgot to focus, to let the power pass through him. Now he heads a group that thinks like..
Willow:Like Veruca [Veruca and like Willow - who gives in herself to the darker impulse in Season 6.]
OZ: Yeah. They think the wolf is the best part of us. [Simone states it in Predators and Prey to Buffy - the slayer is the best part of us. Faith states much the same thing in Bad Girls and Faith, Hope, Trick as does Kendra at the end of What's My Line.]
Dawn: Hey! That's like Slayers. The Demon part is the part that you are and the old human part is the weak, rejected part that gets tossed aside..um that's how some wrong people might see it.
Dawn is making it rather black and white, which OZ has clearly stated above that it's not. He says that both parts are important. What hits me is something I remember from my old women's studies courses in college and myth and meaning lectures - "the demon woman". The woman is two things - the nice, pretty girl, who caters to the male needs, who shops, and has babies, and cooks, and nurtures - then she's the demon, the nag, the evil EVE, the temptress. The virgin Mother Mary, and the temptress Mary Magdelen in Christian mythos, or the temptress Lilith and the cursed Mother Eve. Whedon in the episode Family - writes about a male patriarch who informs Tara's friends that she is a demon. That upon her 18th birthday - when she becomes a "Woman" - her demon aspect will emerge. She will become powerful and they should watch out. Spike states, after proving this is not true, "That's just something to keep your women in line, isn't it? Clever, I like you."
In Celtic mythology - the goddess mythos was the mother - devourer and nuturer. Life and death circled within her. The Goddess is in some respects a metaphor or explanation for Mother Nature - who violently brings life into the world just as she violently removes it. Often blood was associated with the demon woman. During the full moon she'd bleed...and be unclean. Some cultures in ancient times would put her away from the rest of the tribe, secluded until her period of uncleaniness was over. The menstruation - which took place during the full moon or the hour of the wolf. Fearful that her blood would contaminate and hurt those around her. In other cultures she was worshipped during this period and placed with her sisters inside a red tent, pampered, and treated like royalty. Other things that are associated with demon woman are the tides and the full moon. Just as they are associated with the werewolf legends.
In Nightmares - S1, Hank Summers tells Buffy in her nightmare that he wants nothing to do with her, that she is obnoxious, whiny, weak. That she is the reason for his and Joyce's divorce. He could not wait to get away from her. That he is ashamed and disgusted by her. [Hank note has no male sons, only a daughter and at that time an only child. Later, two daughters.] How could he stand her. The nightmare happens on the day that Buffy is supposed to go to the ice capades that evening with her father, they do it once a year. He is picking her up. Instead they have this discussion, as they are having it - the boy Billy shows up - the source of the nightmares coming to life.
The nightmares that follow include failing a test, being buried alive, having to dig her way out of her own grave, and becoming a vampire because the Master has killed her. Of these nightmares - all but the first have ironically come true in some off-kilter way. (Well the first and not becoming a vampire.) Hank Summers and Buffy's nightmare about becoming a demon are revisted in Restless, where Hank is notably missing from her dream, but Riley is there as is Adam and it is Riley and Adam who call her a demon, a killer.
OZ relates a story about Monroe's clan attacking them and how Bay, his wife, turns into a wolf and saves his life. Bay states she probably made a mistake making him a matyr.
Monroe believes the wolf is the best part of him. This is similar actually to Simone's group of rogue slayers - who have decided the slayer is the best part. It also fits with Harmony - who sees being a vampire the best thing ever. Contrast with Angel and Spike who struggle with themselves - both want to be men, but enjoy the power of being vampire - they both saw becoming a vampire as the best thing that happened to them at the time, now both to a degree deeply regret it. The power - becoming a vampire - was also a sexual experience for both men, it entailed drinking the blood of their vampire mothers - from their vampire mothers chests.
Or there's Willow - who equally struggles with this duality. As she tells Buffy in Wrecked - who was I without the magic? Just some ordinary girl. Tara didn't know that girl, she didn't love that girl. But Oz did. And here Willow is sitting opposite OZ and OZ has everything she wants, the wife, the baby, the home, the life. OZ also has control over his power - something Willow continues to struggle with. But then, OZ, never had Willow's insecurities. Another person to contrast Willow and OZ with is Amy. Amy is in some respects Willow's Monroe. Willow and Buffy attempted at one point to help Amy - way back in Season 1, Witch. But they failed. Amy goes down the same road her mother did. She gives into the power, lets it take her over. Amy feels that with the power - she controls what is around her, when in reality it is the power controlling her.
Buffy wants to know if OZ can help her control her power, help her learn not to use it? It's an odd question. Because I don't believe that Buffy's power is controlling her. It is not the same as OZ's or Willow's. Buffy has never used her power to take what she wants from the world and she has never used it to make what she wants it to be. Power for Buffy has always been a bit of a burden. She's tempted, but it is a temptation she fights. And in some respects she preferred her life before she got the power. As she tells Holden Webster in Conversations with Dead People: "I have all this power, I didn't ask for it. I don't want it." The difficulty Buffy is having with power is with perception. Or how others perceive her power. She's begun to buy into some of the propaganda that Twilight has been spreading.
This brings me to Twilight...who remains a mystery. It is at the moment unclear who Twilight is supposed to represent in Buffy's life. He could be just about anyone. There are quite a few characters that I am willing to bet you that he's definitely not, just because it is simply not logical nor plausible thematically, characterwise, or plotwise for Twilight to be these characters. There are others...that yes, there is a way you could plausibly do it but you'd have to do a bit of finagling to explain it.
My guess, however, is Twilight is not who most fans think he is, my guess is that he is a character that has been around since the first season of the series and people have not so much forgotten as overlooked because the character is not magical or supernatural in nature. But the character, if you pay close attention, has been mentioned and referred to indirectly throughout the series, and several of the villians have been metaphorical references to this character or how Buffy is struggling with her relationship with this specific character. The character I'm referring to is one that the writer has neatly skipped around, refusing to tell us that much about the character, and in some respects has spoken volumns about the character the person's absence. Yet, this character has, if you think about it, been directly mentioned or appeared in just about every season of the series, with the possible exception of Season 7 and 8.
Going back to OZ...OZ discusses how the power can be controlled if they want it bad enough. But if they don't, if it doesn't take root in their soul - it can be more dangerous than not trying at all...which is when the wolf pops out of the trees and tries to attack them. Tempering power is a difficult thing. OZ is stating that it is not about giving up the power, but choosing to find other ways to fight your battles without relying solely upon that power. In other words - when you fight people - you might want to use other means. Buffy - tends to veer away from fighting humans or using her super-powers with humans. As she stated to Willow and Xander - in regards to Warren - we don't kill humans. We leave the human authorities to handle people like Warren. This approach reminds me a little of Spike and the chip. How Spike had to find other ways of dealing with people that did not include hitting or hurting them physically. It is also an addiction metaphor - power can be addictive. The ability to take life, to destroy it, is no less powerful than creating it.
Buffy's group is overwhelmingly female, with a few male friends or supporters. Andrew is described as the womanly man by Bay. Twilight's group in contrast is overwhelmingly male. As is the organization - the military.
Riley does not quite appear to be the minion that I originally thought he was. I'm guessing double agent. He says a couple of things to Twilight that lead me to believe he's not quite on board. He says that he believes it is unlikely they are in the mountains, and seems to be attempting to get Twilight to look elsewhere. Granted his input is not really that helpful to either party, Twilight or Buffy, but Riley was not known for being overly effective - he never had very much power in the series. He's, like it or not, cowboy guy. At any rate, I am guessing that Riley will be the one who tells Buffy who Twilight is and if I'm right about who Twilight is - well, the twist will be similar in some respects to what they attempted to do in As You Were, but instead of being a parallel episode to Into the Woods, it will be a parallel to The I in Team. I'm seeing a potentially huge plot-twist coming up on this one, assuming of course that I'm right and they don't go in a different direction like they've done before with Season 8.
The writer's have a lot of fun with punnery. Not much of a fan of puns. I find them a bit obvious and grating, but Jane Espenson loves them to pieces.
Twilight: Kill the man that found this "spike". [They are discussing a "spike" in magic usage not an actual "spike" or "spike" the person. Like I said, fun with puns.]
or
"It's a pretty big Spike."
Riley:"Spike?"
"A Spike in Magic Usage."
Which for reasons that escape me lead some people online to think that Spike might be Twilight. You're kidding right? Because if you aren't? That's insane troll logic. Even if Spike had returned from his sojourn with Angel - evil and killing people, it would still be insane troll logic. Personally, I think the writer is poking fun and the word is meaningless - it's bit like the sex jokes they did with Kenny and Dawn. Wouldn't read anything more than that into it. The writers did the same thing with numbered t-shirts in the 6th season of Buffy. They like to make fun of their fans and themselves. They also like to tease their fans. [Per example - see Girl in Question, Superstar, Normal Again, and Once More With Feeling.]
Will Spike and Angel factor into the story at some point? Yes. Just not in the way most people seem to think. Twilight is not going to be Spike or Angel. Nor is Giles, Xander, Andrew, or Riley (obviously). Like I stated above, I think Twilight is going to be someone that people have discounted. Someone whose betrayal will be from Buffy's perspective far worse than all of these people put together...someone that Buffy has been avoiding dealing with and many of her issues regarding who she is as a slayer and her role in the world revolve around. I think Twilight is Hank Summers. Because Hank Summers knows Buffy better than anyone. And Hank Summers is the ghost that haunts all of her relationships with men. She stops seeing him more or less after I Will Always Remember You. When she returns from the dead - she barely mentions him. And when her mother dies - she mentions him constantly, at least three times in two episodes, asks for him, wonders if he called. When he doesn't...she gives up and rarely says his name. Her male abandoment issues stem from her father.
Each of Buffy's relationships outside of Satsu have been with older men. Men like Angel (247 years older), Spike (126 years), Robin Wood (10-15 years), and Riley (5-6 years, if that). And without exception all these older men have left Buffy. Angel and the Master enter her life as her father leaves it. So does Giles. In Season 2, Angel takes her skating, her father is barely there [What's My Line]. And her father doesn't do anything for her birthday that year, instead she sleeps with Angel[Surprise]. In Season 3, her father stands her up and sends flowers instead with two tickets - stating he has to work.[Helpless]. In Season 4 - she visits him, but is crushed by her visit with Angel in LA[I Will Always Remeber You and Something Blue]. In Season 5 - he doesn't return phone calls.[The Body and Forever]
In Season 6 - they are doing everything possible to avoide the father taking Dawn away from Buffy.[Bargaining]. In fact, Willow even states in Bargaining that the Buffbot can't answer the phone because if Hank Summers calls he'd know it wasn't Buffy and their cover would be blown. And in Normal Again - Buffy's parents are together, she sees both her mother and her father. In Season 7...he isn't mentioned, but Caleb shows up as "Father Caleb" in a priest's outfit and calls Buffy a dirty girl. Caleb shows up again in "Always Darkest" - and is presiding at Buffy's wedding, as Father Caleb, Hank Summers no where in sight.
Twilight to me, sounds a lot like Ted, a lot like The Mayor, a lot like The Master, and a lot like Adam, but also, possibly, a bit like Hank Summers. The father...that lies unmentioned in the tale - yet all of the above in some way or other represent. What do we know about Hank Summers? What does Hank Summers do for a living? Why is he never present? And what has he been doing? We know he went abroad at some point - because Buffy states he's in Europe when Giles suggest Hank take Dawn. She says he took off with another woman. And we know he may have another family, although it is never expressly stated. We aren't told much. He is the character that lies outside on the margins, undefined, lurking. And this is a horror tale. The sick mother has already made an appearance. Where oh where is the disapproving father? Up until now, we've seen him portrayed by big bads such as Caleb, The Mayor and The Master. Also the Watcher Council and Giles - who are, admittedly, the nicer version.
OZ's discussion about power, about restraining the beast inside is a recurring theme in this tale. But it's not the only one. And the bit about Monroe...is in some respects a statement about many of the people in Buffy's own past including Amy, Jonathan, Warren, Riley, Willow...the list goes on. Spike and Angel are a bit more like OZ, except Angel bottles his up and treats it like Mr. Hyde - a separate entity, while Spike like OZ struggles with his. But neither are Monroe. Buffy fears Willow will become a Monroe - one of the many reasons Buffy has come to OZ for help. But is Buffy right this time? Is OZ's way the only answer? I don't think it is. I think there's different types of power and I don't think Buffy necessarily is struggling with her's as much as she believes. The difference between Buffy and the others, is she never really wanted it.
She always wanted to be the normal girl. She sacrifices the slayer in S5 to save the normal girl. She does the opposite of what he sister states. In S7, she shares her power instead of taking more. Unlike Oz, Buffy doesn't relish the power. She enjoys it, but I think she pushes against it. Her difficulty is she is buying what those around her are saying, she's allowing them to define her power and who she is.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 05:39 am (UTC)I agree with you that there are a lot of logistical problems with the characters most commonly considered for Twilight. But one big reason most people are staying with the big four is meta: we've been told that the revelation of Twilight's identity will cause shock, anger, fear, rejoicing, etc. It's hard to see how that would work for any male character other than Giles, Xander, Angel or Spike. I suppose we could range to some other male (Hank or Adam or any other male who's been in the series, but not essential to it) if it turns out that there's another power behind the thrown who would cause turmoil. I don't know. It's hard to figure. But Hank has never been anything other than the absent father figure. That's not a character, it's a trope. It's hard to see the dramatic payoff when Buffy gets "betrayed" by a character nobody knows or cares about. But as you say, there is no obvious good story about anyone else. I'm trusting that Joss has something up his sleeve, but I have no idea what that could be.
Back to the real subject at hand -- I loved the parallel between Oz's dealing with his wolf and Buffy's situation. You are right on in observing that she's never seemed to be directly tempted to misuse her power. But I do wonder if she hasn't had problems because of her attempt to supress the "dark" parts (the primal sexuality, sensuality and so on). Buffy's not connecting to anyone, possibly because she's cut herself off from the source of her own vitality. Oz's RX which is to get a life does speak to that. I'm excited to see how it all turns out.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 06:40 pm (UTC)I honestly can't see how it would be an interesting meta for any of the main characters to be Twilight. Spike and Angel - I am pretty certain can't be Twilight because of IDW. Making either character Twilight would be a bit like flipping the bird at IDW and IDW's canon regarding those characters. IDW has centered an entire franchise around Spike and Angel. The editors have stated in interviews that the tv canon and the Buffy canon is important to them and they've been making allowances for it. They've even included the whole vampires are swell bit into their books and writing them as if they are going on concurrently with Whedon's. If Whedon made Spike or Angel Twilight - it could potentially derail what the IDW writers are doing and their marketing campaign. That's not something one does in entertainment business, not if they want to continue to be employed. Whedon needs his contacts. Contacts are everything in the Entertainment business. And Whedon has stated in numerous interviews he's going to be careful with those two characters in part because of IDW.
While it is possible that IDW could get fans into a how they became bad story - it's unlikely. And I doubt that was what Lynch had in mind. Also from a character arc and thematic arc perspective - turning Spike or Angel bad does not really further the characters or Buffy's arc in any way nor does it speak to the theme. Hank Summers, trope or character, would actually do more. Plus, the writers have gone out their way to show that Spike and Angel aren't that smart - see Girl in Question, Becoming, The Gift, Yoko Factor - Primeval, etc for evidence. Spike and Angel were fooled by the decoy set up by Andrew, which Twilight has not been fooled by. Also, Spike and Angel don't have any motivation for it. They aren't angry at Buffy and they aren't upset with slayers.
Giles and Xander? Possible. If Twilight is a front man for someone behind the curtain as
I'm hoping that's not the case because it's a bit of an ex deus machina, too convienent and too contrived. I can't see it being Giles -since Whedon is still flirting with a Ripper mini-series. Which leaves Xander...
It could be Dawn, I suppose. Except...again time travel. Since Dawn was a bit otherwise engaged being a giant and a doll.
Willow? No motivation. Will likes magic. Unless we're supposed to think she wants to do away with it? It would I suppose be ironic if it were Willow and it does fit with a few of the clues dropped. But been there, done that, already with Willow, why do it again? And how would that further the female empowerment theme?
No, I don't think it makes a lot of sense for it to be any of the top four or five just for "meta". So far the "big shocks" being teased have felt sort of anti-climatic to me. The reveal on Dawn, the reveal on future Willow, the reveal on Buffy/Satsu.
But I could be wrong. The comics I'm finding harder to predict than the tv series, because the writing is not as tight and tends to be a bit all over the place, with huge gaps in logic. Which is admittedly true of the medium. Comics are notorious for being full of retcons and inconsistent writing.
OZ and Buffy - the real subject at hand
Date: 2009-08-09 06:51 pm (UTC)I think Buffy's biggest problem is figuring out how to connect to people. She's cut herself off somewhat. I think unlike Willow, Buffy has always been a little afraid of her power and the source of it. She's afraid of what it means.
Dawn and Buffy...I agree, they didn't entirely reconcile, because Buffy tends to cut herself off from people. It's always been an issue between them. In some respects Dawn has always felt closer to Xander and Willow. I've noticed that in rewatching the tv series. Buffy is stuck in the parent role.
I think one of the themes here is about balance, I think it's always been about Balance. OZ's statements aren't about giving up power or suppressing. He clearly states that this does not work. What he is saying is you have to accept it as part of you, learn how to live with it, find a balance. A metaphor for the balance between work and personal life, which is easier said than done. ;-)