![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatOkay, this post is spoilerfree or it is as spoilerfree as I can get it. The only spoilers are for the Angel and Buffy tv series, Angel After The Fall, and the Buffy issues up to and including issue 31. There should be no spoilers outside of those. At least nothing direct.
But I think this issue is hard to discuss without bringing up spoilers. And the spoilers clearly influence how we interpret it. I know it does. I am however very curious to see how people who did not know the spoiler interpret the issue. So please, please, please don't bring up any spoilers for anything past issue 31. Don't refer to what they are.
Characters discussed are Angel, Spike, Xander, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Tara, Warren, Amy,
Harth, DarkWillow, Andrew, Giles, Faith, and Connor for purposes of thematic and character analysis.
Walked to St. MARKS to get this one - it is 45 blocks from my house as opposed to 10. Also not as nice a store, more your traditional grungy spot, filled with mold and dust, and action dolls, toys, figures, and games. But they did say that their parent store in Manhattan buys old comics - between 10 am - 5pm Monday thru Friday. So, I may go there periodically when I can find the time and try to sell comics or donate. Also going to try and make some pilgrimmages to The Strand to do the same thing but with other books. I've got too many books.
I know this because they are under my bed.
Before I get started, a bit on the art. It is better than past issues. Interesting tidbit - the Whedon written issues are better drawn than the non-Whedon written issues - which leads me to believe that Whedon is more hands on regarding the art direction than any of the other writers are, with the possible exception of Brian K. Vaughn and Drew Goddard. Jeanty got messy during Espenson. So either Whedon is cracking the whip or Jeanty took a drawing class in between. That said, I still find the overall style a bit too bubblegum/my little pony for my taste. It makes the comic feel kiddish or juvenile when its not. (Sigh, I prefer Joan Chen or Jai Lee...or Cassidy.)
This is not a recap - more an analysis. For a recap review - go see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormwreath.
Before I picked up Turbulence - I re-read portions of Wolves at the Gate and
Time of Your Life - both of which I found to be rather fascinating in places, particularly in how they echoed similiar themes hit upon in Turbulence. That and the fact that the Dawn/Xander romance otherwise known as Xawn has definitely been building for quite some time.
1. Xawn: Let's adress Xawn shall we? Get it out of the way first. Because of the things covered in this issue, it is actually the least interesting, although clearly the reason Whedon wrote it. Whedon states in his recent interview that he wrote issue 31, because there was a couple of scenes that he had not been able to address in Retreat, which were important to address prior to the big Twilight arc. He also realized Meltzer didn't have room to address them.
I don't like Xawn. Sorry Joss. I knew you were going there in S7 and have to say I agree with Nick Brendan on this one, it turns me off. For the same reasons Cordonner turned me off and turned Charisma Carpenter off. The reason is simple - I don't like relationships where one party appears to have more power or more control than the other. Nor do I particularly get off on Freud, ie - surrogate mother/son, surrogate father/daughter. They squick me.
I don't know if Cordonner and Xawn are meant to be compared, but there's a lot of similarities. I realized while reading this issue how similar the two relationships are, and how both occurred at the very moment that Buffy and Angel finally got around to admitting they had romantic feelings for their best pals. Cordy/Angel never worked for me anymore than Buffy/Xander did, for more or less the same reasons - the two characters were far too much alike. And I don't think they were romantically in love, so much as had a deep and abiding bond of friendship. There are after all different types of love. Platonic love can be as deep and lasting, sometimes longer lasting than sexual love. A lot of people think sex is the most important thing, it's not. Whedon seems to get that. Sex by itself is not all that interesting. It's how it complicates a relationship that makes it interesting. It makes sense to me that Cordy and Xander would fall in love with Angel's child and Buffy's respectively. They have more power in that relationship. And this, by this I mean Buffy and Angel's stories in both versees on tv and in comics is at its root a tale about power or rather the dynamics of power, which isn't quite the same thing.
Cordelia is a mother figure to Connor. When he returns from the hell dimension, she treats Connor, much as she would a son or younger brother or nephew. He doesn't know she changed his diapers. And considering what happened, it isn't something that she would relate to either - since that was a baby, and she only did it for three months, then wham - he's off in a hell dimension, then wham back again - 17 -18 years passed in his life, while mere months in her's.
Like Dawn, he is the result of magic and exists because of magic. If it weren't for magic Connor would not be alive - the child of two vampires, wiped and all the world with him, then inserted with new fake memories and placed in a new fake family. All magic. Dawn - created out of the DNA of Buffy, then inserted in Buffy's family as her sister - but as Joyce realizes is not her's but Buffy's and Joyce requests that Buffy treat Dawn as Joyce treated Buffy, look at her as if she were yours, take care of her, protect her, as I would you.
False memories. Magical child. A second chance at a life - without powers, without a duty,
without having to be the slayer. Buffy dies for Dawn to have the normal life. Angel wipes everyone's memories, sacrifices his friends, and makes a deal with a devil, in order for Connor who is a bit on the psychotic side, to have a normal life.
Dawn grows up with a crush on Xander (then briefly on Spike until he attempts to rape Buffy), then on Xander again. She falls for the father figure, the only male role model in her life. Giles doesn't count - he's not really there. Although there more than Hank. Like Buffy, perhaps even more so, Dawn has serious Daddy issues, just as Connor had serious Mommy issues.
Darla starts out as Connor's Mom, but dies before he knows her - sacrificing herself for his life. Spike starts out as Dawn's surrogate Dad, falls from a tower to save her, but he betrays Buffy, gets a soul, then sacrifices himself for her and the world to live. Cordy takes Darla's place in Connor's life - Angel's trusty side-kick, his girl friday, his robin, and Xander takes Spike's place in Dawn's life - Buffy's trusty side-kick, her robin.
Both have been in love with Buffy or Angel. Both envy the power Buffy and Angel have.
Both worship their heroes. Both would do anything for them and have literally. And both are human, non-mystical creatures, yet often victims of magic - Xander loses an eye, Cordy gets visions. Both call their heros on their shit, are a bit whiny, and a tad on the patronizing side. Cordy hates Buffy. Xander hates Angel. They both hate but tolerate Spike.
Angel discovers Cordy and Connor making love and has a fit. Buffy discovers Dawn and Xander kissing and goes off to fight a battle. Both focus on the battle at hand. When they discover it - is ironically at the very moment both wish to finally disclose their own feelings to their best pal. Feelings that their best pal pushes aside. Cordy is a bit more cruel, but she isn't really Cordy either. Xander is a bit patronizing and whiny, although understanding.
Angel broods and then plays into Cordy's trap and unleashes Angelus. Buffy cries, gives her blessing, then fights the big goddesses. Connor acts like a whiny jealous brat, as does Dawn.
Xawn is arguably more digestible than Cordonner. But. They both have the same root problem.
Power. Xander is shown throughout the comics as being Dawn's confidante, her uncle, her paternal adviser. He brings her her clothes. Helps her bathe. Protects her. Stays behind with her - as a babysitter of sorts (see Time of Your Life), and is the one she tells about Kenny and everything else. He has a tremendous amount of power here. Dawn relatively little. He knows all her secrets, she does not know his. The relationship reminds me a lot of Buffy/Riley and Buffy/Angel - which were also uneven in power dynamics. Riley and Angel arguably had more power than Buffy - their appeal however is the same as Xander to Dawn.
The reason Buffy never fell for Xander as a youngster is the very reason Dawn does now,
he was her age. And she had Daddyissues. So does Dawn. They are both looking for that person in their lives - the father who won't leave. The man who will stand by their side. Xander's appeal to Dawn is similar to Spike's appeal to Buffy. But Spike and Buffy were evenly matched, one did not really have power over the other, they kept shifting. Angel was different, he romanced Buffy when she was a child, an adolescent, barely an adult.
Riley was closer, but she was stronger, and he older in maturity - plus he had power over her with the military and the fact that he was her teacher. Yet, what Angel and Riley have in common is they both leave. What Spike and Xander had in common, until Spike died, was they did not leave. We're talking about two women with serious abandonment issues. The other thing Xander and Spike both have in common is a hatred for their father and an abiding respect and deep love of their mother - who they wish to protect from what the father did. Both fear becoming their father of repeating his mistakes. Angel and Riley on the other hand respect their fathers, or wish to, or wish for their father's respect, and have a rather ambivalent or negative relationship with the mother.
Riley and Xander say the same thing to Buffy. It comes across a bit patronizing, although I'm not sure that is the intent.
"Buffy you fought a brutal campaign. Nobody won, but nobody does. I saw intelligence, courage, and compassion. You're treating the enemy's wounded. I'm proud of you.
And here's Xander's:You did what you had to, Buff. I'm proud of you.
It's very paternal thing to say, a fatherly thing almost. What it hints at is who is missing, who would normally say it. Twilight states shortly before this that he's done a spell to hide the people he's taken from Buffy, so she won't notice they are gone before it is too late.
Normally the person who would have said these words is Giles. Neither Xander nor Riley normally state them, at least not in that way. Angel would state them. But not Xander or Riley. They'd say you did your best. The last phrase which is exact for both - to the point in which Buffy tells Xander, that's what Riley said - is "I'm proud of you" - Giles' line.
Here's another interesting scene that underlines who is missing...and what lies unresolved.
It hit because of this scene that I just re-read today from Wolves at the Gate.
Wolves at the Gate first:
Satsu: I'm in love with you. And I need to not be. And that's never gonna happen when you're right in front of me.
Buffy: you want me to leave?
Satsu: More like I should stay here. In Japan.
Buffy: It's a lot of work, satsu. These girls are raw. Most of them aren't ready for what's to come.
Satsu: I won't let you down.
Buffy: I know you won't. I just hope...I just hope I didn't hurt you.
Satsu: Nah. I'm tough. And for what it's worth...it was one of the best nights of my life.
Buffy: Mine too.
Reminds me a great deal of the discussion after Touched, in End of Days, between Spike and Buffy - before Buffy went and met the Guardian and kissed Angel. It also reminds me a little of their last couple of chats before they went into the hellmouth.
Here's the one from issue 31, Turbulence, (and oh by the way, Jeanty has taken our critiques to heart and figured out how to make OZ, Andrew, Riley and Random Solider looked very different - more lines! YAY.):
Random Enemy Solider: Are you in love
Buffy: I think maybe we should take it slow.
Randam Enemy Solider: Jenna Abrams she has no idea. I shoulda said something at the dance, but...what was I afraid of? What could be...what would be worse than...(he dies and she closes his eyes, and Xander asks if she's okay.)
This feels, and I could be wrong, but how it is placed, it feels a bit too much like a commentary on Chosen. About being too late. This is followed by another conversation with Xander. Xander basically echoes Riley's earlier words, then Buffy confides in him.
Buffy: That's what Riley said.
Xander: Well, he's a brainy guy. Plus he's dangling stell, working inside Twilight's camp.
Buffy: Since when are you such a fanboy.
Xander: Your one boyfriend who wasn't a psychotic demon? I was always team Riley.
Buffy: That's right, you got all tough love with me about him.
Xander: Little too late.
Buffy: That's my motto.. I'm too late again, aren't I?
(Here's the deal - she may not just be talking about Xander here. There's three men that she was a bit late to tell that she loved them. Riley - she was screaming it to his helicopter as he flew off to South America - giving her little warning and/or time to catch him and after she caught him cheating on her with vamp whores. (Note to Buffy, next time you date someone, keep in mind it takes two to tango. If he can't communicate there's a problem to you, or find a way of working it out, and thinks the best way to deal is to run off and fight demons in South America or LA without providing you with any way of contacting him - he's probably not worth it. And it was not about you!)Spike - he was burning up in the hellmouth wearing the amulet that Angel gave her (note to Buffy do not trust anything Angel says or gives to you in the future without doing massive amounts of research first, the fact that he has caused at least three apocalypses...and barely stopped them should be evidence enough), and Xander...who wait, she's told she loves him so many times I've lost count, just not in that way. He is right, I think. I don't think she's in love with him. But she cares for him and would like to find someone, don't we all? It is NOT by the way you're fault that you haven't.
Life is well unpredictable.)
Regarding Riley...I'm unconvinced that he's not a triple agent. For a lot of reasons. One - what Twilight is against is not "slayers" but "magic". Twilight wants to bring to a close the age of magic. He states it in Time of Your Life or thereabouts. He says it more than once.
He doesn't want to do away with slayers per se, but all magic. Including Willow. Demons.
Vampires. All of it. (Which throws me, because his closest allies are demons and vampires, and a witch.) So I think he is lying to some of the people he has associated himself with.
The military or humans - see him as wanting to end magic and remove it altogether - bring the age of magic to a close - which leads to the Frayverse. The demons, Warren and Amy - see him as just wanting to do away with Buffy.
Here's the conversation between Twilight and Female Military Lietutant Molter in No Future for You, after Rook and Gigi have failed to kill Buffy or co-opt Faith. (Note both Faith and Giles are now Twilight's prisoners)
Lt. Molter: I bear your mark, now give me my damn audience. (She has the mark on her hand)
Twilight: Calm yourself, Lt. Molter.
Lt. Molter: You're not gonna be walking on air when you hear what I have to say. Our man on the inside confirms that Summers is still alive. Your goons failed.
Twilight: Roden and Geneive were not my minions. They were my targets.
Lt. Molter: What are you talking about? This whole operation was about neutralizing two of your own soliders?
Twilight: No. It was about manipulating our enemies into wagins this ugly war for us, a tactic crucial for bringing the age of magic to a close. By pitting watcher against warlock and slayer against slayer, we have pushed even the victors to remove themselves from the chessboard.
Lt. Molter: Who cares about a couple of rooks when the queen is still in play? How can you see this as a victory when Buffy's narrow ass lives to fight another day?
Twilight: Let her have the day Lt. Night falls soon enough.
Riley - we know from the get-go was against magic and demons. He always hated magic and demons. He loved Buffy, but he hated the demons. I can see Riley taking the view that this about the greater good. That while he cares deeply for Buffy, they'd all be better off without magic.
Now here's Time of Your Life:
Twilight (reacting to AMy and Warren bantering in the background): Ah young love isn't it depressing?
Riley: In my experience, yeah.
Twilight: But you don't tell her that.
Riley: I tell her I'm her inside man. Her ever. Faithful. She's so stuck in the past, man...when we had our secret meeting in new york...she even got dressed up.
So I don't know. Riley has been incommunicado for a long time. Last he was involved with Buffy - she was shagging Spike and Spike was harboring demon eggs that he was busy trying to annihilate. Also, she got Spike de-chipped. That's all he knows. Sam is missing. Begs another question - where the heck is Sam, Riley's wife? And how do we know he's on the up and up.
Plus, we keep getting allusions to the number three. At first I thought I was imagining things or making too big a deal or something. But...in Time of Your Life - Buffy is strategizing with Willow and Xander. (three people). They are the inner group. Twilight is then seen strategizing with Amy and Warren (three people). One - has two women, one male, and is run by a woman, the other two men and one woman, ran by a man.
Twilight = Buffy.
Amy=Willow
Warren=Xander.
I'm beginning to realize that Warren in some respects fits Xander as much if not more than anyone else. Xander who thought the Buffybot was cool and Buffy, but pulled back. Xander who did the girlfriend spell to make Cordy want him and hurt. Xander who had a thing for Buffy.
But Xander is not Warren. Warren is who Xander could have been if he had no love, no Willow, no Buffy, no Cordy, and did not love his mom and hate his dad. Warren is the anti-Xander.
Just as Amy is the anti-Willow - she is the opposite. The one who was in witchcraft - not to do good, but for the rush, the power. And like Willow and Xander at one point being an item, but now just deep platonic friends, so too Amy and Warren. The comparison grabbed me by the throat when I re-read Time of Your Life.
Twilight is Buffy, the dark part of her. The father she could never quite appease or find, who remains outside her reach, always disappearing in the mist. The part of her who hates the magic, hates the power, who wants to just be a girl. A normal girl. Doing classes.
The girl with the pigtails and lollipop - Cordelia Chase. He is also the part of her - who loves the power and wants to control and make the world clean - self-righteous in his certainity that his way is the right one. And isn't it? Wouldn't a world without magic be a better place?
Twilight looks down at his "3" capitvies - again with the 3 (TRiple X is in Buffy's dream, Triple X is Ethan's cell, three captives from her group, three ex boyfriends, referenced by current relationships).
Twilight: So much destruction, so many fallen factor in the confusion spell my own wiccans tossed into the field and it will be hours before you are missed. Days before you're sought. But when Buffy realizes what she's missing...such powerful elements in her makeup..her trust (giles - referenced by Riley and Xander's I'm proud of you), her guilt (Faith - referenced in part by her scenes with Dawn and Xander, which in the past may have been Faith and Xander)
and your name Will come back to me...(Andrew...the boy who references in a way Xander).
What do Giles, Faith and Andrew have in common?
In No Future for You - Giles and Faith are trying to save "rogue" slayers.
Andrew and Giles save one with many slayers in Damage - Angel S5
Giles, Faith, and Andrew have all killed a human being and all feel deep remorse. None did it with super-powers. But magic was involved or part of it. Two did it for an evil big bad. One
did it to prevent the big bad from coming back.
All three have been on the outs with Buffy, are annoyances, people Buffy would rather avoid or has avoided throughout much of the arc. All three have lied to her.
All three have rehabiltated themselves, switched sides. All three have at one time or another attempted to kill Buffy, Spike or Angel. Andrew tried to kill Buffy. Giles and Faith tried to kill Angel and Spike. Faith tried to kill Buffy. All three have betrayed trust. And all
three represent people motivated by guilt to change. To pay for past crimes.
Going back to Time of Your Life, the conversation between DarkWillow and Harth.
Willow: Vampires gain their strength from each other. Slayers ultimately don't. What happens in your time will cause your time to come.
(Does this mean that Buffy will choose to end magic - or will she fight against the end of magic and that fight, inevitably leads to the Frayverse? Or just split off the timeline by choosing to fight against the end of magic? I can't see her pushing for an end to magic - since she knows where that will lead. I'm thinking maybe Willow should zap the Twilight group into the Frayverse for about six months then zap them back again and see how happy they are about ending the age of magic in their own time. What I don't understand is why do Amy and Warren support Twilight? If magic ceased - Warren would be dead and Amy would be powerless.
Then again magic has made them what they are - bitter and in pain. Without it, they may believe they'd have been better off.)
When Willow asks Harth why he wants to kill his sister, Melaka, he replies: "She's the last
thing I ever loved. We're connected. Her pain is my joy. My true love and what in this world is stronger than love?
Here's the thing, and I find it interesting in relation to the characters of Buffy, Spike and Angel and the other characters...Buffy is motivated by love, more than guilt. She sacrificed herself out of love for Dawn not guilt. She allowed herself to love not one but two vampires, and managed to change their paths. She feels quilty but it does not motivate her. Out of love she shared her power. Angel is largely motivated out of guilt, guilt he has been cursed with for an eternity. He will do anything to appease it, yet fears to, because that would bring back Angelus and start the whole cycle again. He is caught in an unending circle of guilt which takes him nowhere but into the abyss, again, and again. Angelus once upon a time said these words to Dru and Spike in explaination of why he wished to kill the slayer/Buffy: Because she made me feel love and that's not something you forgive. (it's scarily similar to Harth's statement.) Love had power over him. If he did not love Darla - she had no power.
When you love someone - you give them power, you give them the power to hurt you.
Buffy admitting her love to Xander - gave Xander power, it empowered him...he is comforting her. Love is as powerful if not more powerful than hate - we do more for each other out of love than we do out of hate - which often just eats us up inside. The solider admitting his love for another - gave him a moment of peace, made it possible for him to die. Love is what defeats the goddesses of wrath and puts them back in the ground - Buffy and Willow's love for one another and the others.
Harth wants to eradicate love for the same reason Angelus did - it weakens him. While for Spike, fool for love, he embraced it, took it inside his chest, until it burned away the demon leaving the man aching to be a man, aching for a soul. It weakened him or so he was told, but he fought for it - for it was efflugent. Willow too fights for love...the loss of love turned her dark, but Xander's love and forgiveness turned her light. Riley ran from love, because it burned him, it was unreturned or so he thought. I bring up Angel and Spike because this is a story about relationships, about power, and love is a powerful thing and I believe at the root of this tale.
"Ah young love..isn't it depressing?" Yet very powerful. At the end of Turbulence, they bury the goddesses of wrath and rage and pride...and appease their own hearts. Buffy has forgiven and accepted Dawn and Xander, and forgiven herself. Something Angel never quite did in Angel S4 when a similar event took place. They lift above them...and Buffy shares with Willow her power to fly, she shares Xawn and Willow blows Buff away by admitting she knew all along.
[Okay there are to my knowledge no spoilers in this post. Please try to keep them out of the comments. I think we can discuss the story without bringing up the spoilers.]
But I think this issue is hard to discuss without bringing up spoilers. And the spoilers clearly influence how we interpret it. I know it does. I am however very curious to see how people who did not know the spoiler interpret the issue. So please, please, please don't bring up any spoilers for anything past issue 31. Don't refer to what they are.
Characters discussed are Angel, Spike, Xander, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Tara, Warren, Amy,
Harth, DarkWillow, Andrew, Giles, Faith, and Connor for purposes of thematic and character analysis.
Walked to St. MARKS to get this one - it is 45 blocks from my house as opposed to 10. Also not as nice a store, more your traditional grungy spot, filled with mold and dust, and action dolls, toys, figures, and games. But they did say that their parent store in Manhattan buys old comics - between 10 am - 5pm Monday thru Friday. So, I may go there periodically when I can find the time and try to sell comics or donate. Also going to try and make some pilgrimmages to The Strand to do the same thing but with other books. I've got too many books.
I know this because they are under my bed.
Before I get started, a bit on the art. It is better than past issues. Interesting tidbit - the Whedon written issues are better drawn than the non-Whedon written issues - which leads me to believe that Whedon is more hands on regarding the art direction than any of the other writers are, with the possible exception of Brian K. Vaughn and Drew Goddard. Jeanty got messy during Espenson. So either Whedon is cracking the whip or Jeanty took a drawing class in between. That said, I still find the overall style a bit too bubblegum/my little pony for my taste. It makes the comic feel kiddish or juvenile when its not. (Sigh, I prefer Joan Chen or Jai Lee...or Cassidy.)
This is not a recap - more an analysis. For a recap review - go see
stormwreath.Before I picked up Turbulence - I re-read portions of Wolves at the Gate and
Time of Your Life - both of which I found to be rather fascinating in places, particularly in how they echoed similiar themes hit upon in Turbulence. That and the fact that the Dawn/Xander romance otherwise known as Xawn has definitely been building for quite some time.
1. Xawn: Let's adress Xawn shall we? Get it out of the way first. Because of the things covered in this issue, it is actually the least interesting, although clearly the reason Whedon wrote it. Whedon states in his recent interview that he wrote issue 31, because there was a couple of scenes that he had not been able to address in Retreat, which were important to address prior to the big Twilight arc. He also realized Meltzer didn't have room to address them.
I don't like Xawn. Sorry Joss. I knew you were going there in S7 and have to say I agree with Nick Brendan on this one, it turns me off. For the same reasons Cordonner turned me off and turned Charisma Carpenter off. The reason is simple - I don't like relationships where one party appears to have more power or more control than the other. Nor do I particularly get off on Freud, ie - surrogate mother/son, surrogate father/daughter. They squick me.
I don't know if Cordonner and Xawn are meant to be compared, but there's a lot of similarities. I realized while reading this issue how similar the two relationships are, and how both occurred at the very moment that Buffy and Angel finally got around to admitting they had romantic feelings for their best pals. Cordy/Angel never worked for me anymore than Buffy/Xander did, for more or less the same reasons - the two characters were far too much alike. And I don't think they were romantically in love, so much as had a deep and abiding bond of friendship. There are after all different types of love. Platonic love can be as deep and lasting, sometimes longer lasting than sexual love. A lot of people think sex is the most important thing, it's not. Whedon seems to get that. Sex by itself is not all that interesting. It's how it complicates a relationship that makes it interesting. It makes sense to me that Cordy and Xander would fall in love with Angel's child and Buffy's respectively. They have more power in that relationship. And this, by this I mean Buffy and Angel's stories in both versees on tv and in comics is at its root a tale about power or rather the dynamics of power, which isn't quite the same thing.
Cordelia is a mother figure to Connor. When he returns from the hell dimension, she treats Connor, much as she would a son or younger brother or nephew. He doesn't know she changed his diapers. And considering what happened, it isn't something that she would relate to either - since that was a baby, and she only did it for three months, then wham - he's off in a hell dimension, then wham back again - 17 -18 years passed in his life, while mere months in her's.
Like Dawn, he is the result of magic and exists because of magic. If it weren't for magic Connor would not be alive - the child of two vampires, wiped and all the world with him, then inserted with new fake memories and placed in a new fake family. All magic. Dawn - created out of the DNA of Buffy, then inserted in Buffy's family as her sister - but as Joyce realizes is not her's but Buffy's and Joyce requests that Buffy treat Dawn as Joyce treated Buffy, look at her as if she were yours, take care of her, protect her, as I would you.
False memories. Magical child. A second chance at a life - without powers, without a duty,
without having to be the slayer. Buffy dies for Dawn to have the normal life. Angel wipes everyone's memories, sacrifices his friends, and makes a deal with a devil, in order for Connor who is a bit on the psychotic side, to have a normal life.
Dawn grows up with a crush on Xander (then briefly on Spike until he attempts to rape Buffy), then on Xander again. She falls for the father figure, the only male role model in her life. Giles doesn't count - he's not really there. Although there more than Hank. Like Buffy, perhaps even more so, Dawn has serious Daddy issues, just as Connor had serious Mommy issues.
Darla starts out as Connor's Mom, but dies before he knows her - sacrificing herself for his life. Spike starts out as Dawn's surrogate Dad, falls from a tower to save her, but he betrays Buffy, gets a soul, then sacrifices himself for her and the world to live. Cordy takes Darla's place in Connor's life - Angel's trusty side-kick, his girl friday, his robin, and Xander takes Spike's place in Dawn's life - Buffy's trusty side-kick, her robin.
Both have been in love with Buffy or Angel. Both envy the power Buffy and Angel have.
Both worship their heroes. Both would do anything for them and have literally. And both are human, non-mystical creatures, yet often victims of magic - Xander loses an eye, Cordy gets visions. Both call their heros on their shit, are a bit whiny, and a tad on the patronizing side. Cordy hates Buffy. Xander hates Angel. They both hate but tolerate Spike.
Angel discovers Cordy and Connor making love and has a fit. Buffy discovers Dawn and Xander kissing and goes off to fight a battle. Both focus on the battle at hand. When they discover it - is ironically at the very moment both wish to finally disclose their own feelings to their best pal. Feelings that their best pal pushes aside. Cordy is a bit more cruel, but she isn't really Cordy either. Xander is a bit patronizing and whiny, although understanding.
Angel broods and then plays into Cordy's trap and unleashes Angelus. Buffy cries, gives her blessing, then fights the big goddesses. Connor acts like a whiny jealous brat, as does Dawn.
Xawn is arguably more digestible than Cordonner. But. They both have the same root problem.
Power. Xander is shown throughout the comics as being Dawn's confidante, her uncle, her paternal adviser. He brings her her clothes. Helps her bathe. Protects her. Stays behind with her - as a babysitter of sorts (see Time of Your Life), and is the one she tells about Kenny and everything else. He has a tremendous amount of power here. Dawn relatively little. He knows all her secrets, she does not know his. The relationship reminds me a lot of Buffy/Riley and Buffy/Angel - which were also uneven in power dynamics. Riley and Angel arguably had more power than Buffy - their appeal however is the same as Xander to Dawn.
The reason Buffy never fell for Xander as a youngster is the very reason Dawn does now,
he was her age. And she had Daddyissues. So does Dawn. They are both looking for that person in their lives - the father who won't leave. The man who will stand by their side. Xander's appeal to Dawn is similar to Spike's appeal to Buffy. But Spike and Buffy were evenly matched, one did not really have power over the other, they kept shifting. Angel was different, he romanced Buffy when she was a child, an adolescent, barely an adult.
Riley was closer, but she was stronger, and he older in maturity - plus he had power over her with the military and the fact that he was her teacher. Yet, what Angel and Riley have in common is they both leave. What Spike and Xander had in common, until Spike died, was they did not leave. We're talking about two women with serious abandonment issues. The other thing Xander and Spike both have in common is a hatred for their father and an abiding respect and deep love of their mother - who they wish to protect from what the father did. Both fear becoming their father of repeating his mistakes. Angel and Riley on the other hand respect their fathers, or wish to, or wish for their father's respect, and have a rather ambivalent or negative relationship with the mother.
Riley and Xander say the same thing to Buffy. It comes across a bit patronizing, although I'm not sure that is the intent.
"Buffy you fought a brutal campaign. Nobody won, but nobody does. I saw intelligence, courage, and compassion. You're treating the enemy's wounded. I'm proud of you.
And here's Xander's:You did what you had to, Buff. I'm proud of you.
It's very paternal thing to say, a fatherly thing almost. What it hints at is who is missing, who would normally say it. Twilight states shortly before this that he's done a spell to hide the people he's taken from Buffy, so she won't notice they are gone before it is too late.
Normally the person who would have said these words is Giles. Neither Xander nor Riley normally state them, at least not in that way. Angel would state them. But not Xander or Riley. They'd say you did your best. The last phrase which is exact for both - to the point in which Buffy tells Xander, that's what Riley said - is "I'm proud of you" - Giles' line.
Here's another interesting scene that underlines who is missing...and what lies unresolved.
It hit because of this scene that I just re-read today from Wolves at the Gate.
Wolves at the Gate first:
Satsu: I'm in love with you. And I need to not be. And that's never gonna happen when you're right in front of me.
Buffy: you want me to leave?
Satsu: More like I should stay here. In Japan.
Buffy: It's a lot of work, satsu. These girls are raw. Most of them aren't ready for what's to come.
Satsu: I won't let you down.
Buffy: I know you won't. I just hope...I just hope I didn't hurt you.
Satsu: Nah. I'm tough. And for what it's worth...it was one of the best nights of my life.
Buffy: Mine too.
Reminds me a great deal of the discussion after Touched, in End of Days, between Spike and Buffy - before Buffy went and met the Guardian and kissed Angel. It also reminds me a little of their last couple of chats before they went into the hellmouth.
Here's the one from issue 31, Turbulence, (and oh by the way, Jeanty has taken our critiques to heart and figured out how to make OZ, Andrew, Riley and Random Solider looked very different - more lines! YAY.):
Random Enemy Solider: Are you in love
Buffy: I think maybe we should take it slow.
Randam Enemy Solider: Jenna Abrams she has no idea. I shoulda said something at the dance, but...what was I afraid of? What could be...what would be worse than...(he dies and she closes his eyes, and Xander asks if she's okay.)
This feels, and I could be wrong, but how it is placed, it feels a bit too much like a commentary on Chosen. About being too late. This is followed by another conversation with Xander. Xander basically echoes Riley's earlier words, then Buffy confides in him.
Buffy: That's what Riley said.
Xander: Well, he's a brainy guy. Plus he's dangling stell, working inside Twilight's camp.
Buffy: Since when are you such a fanboy.
Xander: Your one boyfriend who wasn't a psychotic demon? I was always team Riley.
Buffy: That's right, you got all tough love with me about him.
Xander: Little too late.
Buffy: That's my motto.. I'm too late again, aren't I?
(Here's the deal - she may not just be talking about Xander here. There's three men that she was a bit late to tell that she loved them. Riley - she was screaming it to his helicopter as he flew off to South America - giving her little warning and/or time to catch him and after she caught him cheating on her with vamp whores. (Note to Buffy, next time you date someone, keep in mind it takes two to tango. If he can't communicate there's a problem to you, or find a way of working it out, and thinks the best way to deal is to run off and fight demons in South America or LA without providing you with any way of contacting him - he's probably not worth it. And it was not about you!)Spike - he was burning up in the hellmouth wearing the amulet that Angel gave her (note to Buffy do not trust anything Angel says or gives to you in the future without doing massive amounts of research first, the fact that he has caused at least three apocalypses...and barely stopped them should be evidence enough), and Xander...who wait, she's told she loves him so many times I've lost count, just not in that way. He is right, I think. I don't think she's in love with him. But she cares for him and would like to find someone, don't we all? It is NOT by the way you're fault that you haven't.
Life is well unpredictable.)
Regarding Riley...I'm unconvinced that he's not a triple agent. For a lot of reasons. One - what Twilight is against is not "slayers" but "magic". Twilight wants to bring to a close the age of magic. He states it in Time of Your Life or thereabouts. He says it more than once.
He doesn't want to do away with slayers per se, but all magic. Including Willow. Demons.
Vampires. All of it. (Which throws me, because his closest allies are demons and vampires, and a witch.) So I think he is lying to some of the people he has associated himself with.
The military or humans - see him as wanting to end magic and remove it altogether - bring the age of magic to a close - which leads to the Frayverse. The demons, Warren and Amy - see him as just wanting to do away with Buffy.
Here's the conversation between Twilight and Female Military Lietutant Molter in No Future for You, after Rook and Gigi have failed to kill Buffy or co-opt Faith. (Note both Faith and Giles are now Twilight's prisoners)
Lt. Molter: I bear your mark, now give me my damn audience. (She has the mark on her hand)
Twilight: Calm yourself, Lt. Molter.
Lt. Molter: You're not gonna be walking on air when you hear what I have to say. Our man on the inside confirms that Summers is still alive. Your goons failed.
Twilight: Roden and Geneive were not my minions. They were my targets.
Lt. Molter: What are you talking about? This whole operation was about neutralizing two of your own soliders?
Twilight: No. It was about manipulating our enemies into wagins this ugly war for us, a tactic crucial for bringing the age of magic to a close. By pitting watcher against warlock and slayer against slayer, we have pushed even the victors to remove themselves from the chessboard.
Lt. Molter: Who cares about a couple of rooks when the queen is still in play? How can you see this as a victory when Buffy's narrow ass lives to fight another day?
Twilight: Let her have the day Lt. Night falls soon enough.
Riley - we know from the get-go was against magic and demons. He always hated magic and demons. He loved Buffy, but he hated the demons. I can see Riley taking the view that this about the greater good. That while he cares deeply for Buffy, they'd all be better off without magic.
Now here's Time of Your Life:
Twilight (reacting to AMy and Warren bantering in the background): Ah young love isn't it depressing?
Riley: In my experience, yeah.
Twilight: But you don't tell her that.
Riley: I tell her I'm her inside man. Her ever. Faithful. She's so stuck in the past, man...when we had our secret meeting in new york...she even got dressed up.
So I don't know. Riley has been incommunicado for a long time. Last he was involved with Buffy - she was shagging Spike and Spike was harboring demon eggs that he was busy trying to annihilate. Also, she got Spike de-chipped. That's all he knows. Sam is missing. Begs another question - where the heck is Sam, Riley's wife? And how do we know he's on the up and up.
Plus, we keep getting allusions to the number three. At first I thought I was imagining things or making too big a deal or something. But...in Time of Your Life - Buffy is strategizing with Willow and Xander. (three people). They are the inner group. Twilight is then seen strategizing with Amy and Warren (three people). One - has two women, one male, and is run by a woman, the other two men and one woman, ran by a man.
Twilight = Buffy.
Amy=Willow
Warren=Xander.
I'm beginning to realize that Warren in some respects fits Xander as much if not more than anyone else. Xander who thought the Buffybot was cool and Buffy, but pulled back. Xander who did the girlfriend spell to make Cordy want him and hurt. Xander who had a thing for Buffy.
But Xander is not Warren. Warren is who Xander could have been if he had no love, no Willow, no Buffy, no Cordy, and did not love his mom and hate his dad. Warren is the anti-Xander.
Just as Amy is the anti-Willow - she is the opposite. The one who was in witchcraft - not to do good, but for the rush, the power. And like Willow and Xander at one point being an item, but now just deep platonic friends, so too Amy and Warren. The comparison grabbed me by the throat when I re-read Time of Your Life.
Twilight is Buffy, the dark part of her. The father she could never quite appease or find, who remains outside her reach, always disappearing in the mist. The part of her who hates the magic, hates the power, who wants to just be a girl. A normal girl. Doing classes.
The girl with the pigtails and lollipop - Cordelia Chase. He is also the part of her - who loves the power and wants to control and make the world clean - self-righteous in his certainity that his way is the right one. And isn't it? Wouldn't a world without magic be a better place?
Twilight looks down at his "3" capitvies - again with the 3 (TRiple X is in Buffy's dream, Triple X is Ethan's cell, three captives from her group, three ex boyfriends, referenced by current relationships).
Twilight: So much destruction, so many fallen factor in the confusion spell my own wiccans tossed into the field and it will be hours before you are missed. Days before you're sought. But when Buffy realizes what she's missing...such powerful elements in her makeup..her trust (giles - referenced by Riley and Xander's I'm proud of you), her guilt (Faith - referenced in part by her scenes with Dawn and Xander, which in the past may have been Faith and Xander)
and your name Will come back to me...(Andrew...the boy who references in a way Xander).
What do Giles, Faith and Andrew have in common?
In No Future for You - Giles and Faith are trying to save "rogue" slayers.
Andrew and Giles save one with many slayers in Damage - Angel S5
Giles, Faith, and Andrew have all killed a human being and all feel deep remorse. None did it with super-powers. But magic was involved or part of it. Two did it for an evil big bad. One
did it to prevent the big bad from coming back.
All three have been on the outs with Buffy, are annoyances, people Buffy would rather avoid or has avoided throughout much of the arc. All three have lied to her.
All three have rehabiltated themselves, switched sides. All three have at one time or another attempted to kill Buffy, Spike or Angel. Andrew tried to kill Buffy. Giles and Faith tried to kill Angel and Spike. Faith tried to kill Buffy. All three have betrayed trust. And all
three represent people motivated by guilt to change. To pay for past crimes.
Going back to Time of Your Life, the conversation between DarkWillow and Harth.
Willow: Vampires gain their strength from each other. Slayers ultimately don't. What happens in your time will cause your time to come.
(Does this mean that Buffy will choose to end magic - or will she fight against the end of magic and that fight, inevitably leads to the Frayverse? Or just split off the timeline by choosing to fight against the end of magic? I can't see her pushing for an end to magic - since she knows where that will lead. I'm thinking maybe Willow should zap the Twilight group into the Frayverse for about six months then zap them back again and see how happy they are about ending the age of magic in their own time. What I don't understand is why do Amy and Warren support Twilight? If magic ceased - Warren would be dead and Amy would be powerless.
Then again magic has made them what they are - bitter and in pain. Without it, they may believe they'd have been better off.)
When Willow asks Harth why he wants to kill his sister, Melaka, he replies: "She's the last
thing I ever loved. We're connected. Her pain is my joy. My true love and what in this world is stronger than love?
Here's the thing, and I find it interesting in relation to the characters of Buffy, Spike and Angel and the other characters...Buffy is motivated by love, more than guilt. She sacrificed herself out of love for Dawn not guilt. She allowed herself to love not one but two vampires, and managed to change their paths. She feels quilty but it does not motivate her. Out of love she shared her power. Angel is largely motivated out of guilt, guilt he has been cursed with for an eternity. He will do anything to appease it, yet fears to, because that would bring back Angelus and start the whole cycle again. He is caught in an unending circle of guilt which takes him nowhere but into the abyss, again, and again. Angelus once upon a time said these words to Dru and Spike in explaination of why he wished to kill the slayer/Buffy: Because she made me feel love and that's not something you forgive. (it's scarily similar to Harth's statement.) Love had power over him. If he did not love Darla - she had no power.
When you love someone - you give them power, you give them the power to hurt you.
Buffy admitting her love to Xander - gave Xander power, it empowered him...he is comforting her. Love is as powerful if not more powerful than hate - we do more for each other out of love than we do out of hate - which often just eats us up inside. The solider admitting his love for another - gave him a moment of peace, made it possible for him to die. Love is what defeats the goddesses of wrath and puts them back in the ground - Buffy and Willow's love for one another and the others.
Harth wants to eradicate love for the same reason Angelus did - it weakens him. While for Spike, fool for love, he embraced it, took it inside his chest, until it burned away the demon leaving the man aching to be a man, aching for a soul. It weakened him or so he was told, but he fought for it - for it was efflugent. Willow too fights for love...the loss of love turned her dark, but Xander's love and forgiveness turned her light. Riley ran from love, because it burned him, it was unreturned or so he thought. I bring up Angel and Spike because this is a story about relationships, about power, and love is a powerful thing and I believe at the root of this tale.
"Ah young love..isn't it depressing?" Yet very powerful. At the end of Turbulence, they bury the goddesses of wrath and rage and pride...and appease their own hearts. Buffy has forgiven and accepted Dawn and Xander, and forgiven herself. Something Angel never quite did in Angel S4 when a similar event took place. They lift above them...and Buffy shares with Willow her power to fly, she shares Xawn and Willow blows Buff away by admitting she knew all along.
[Okay there are to my knowledge no spoilers in this post. Please try to keep them out of the comments. I think we can discuss the story without bringing up the spoilers.]