Beauty and the Beasts and Dead Things back to back are fairly interesting. One's the teen view of abusive relationships...the other the adult - or where it can lead, if unchecked. Also Willow's abusive behavior toward Tara and her caged power is in some respects less obvious than Oz's, but more insidious and disturbing. Just as Spike's abusive behavior towards Buffy falls under the radar...you don't quite notice it, except in the balcony scene - where he seduces her but makes her feel dirty and like crap at the same time. It's a hot scene, but also a disturbing one. Her response...later, is to beat him. If you compare to Beauty and the Beasts - it is similar, but the metaphor is twisted in that you see it through another lense, that of the abuser. Debbie manipulates Peter, makes him feel like crap, that he has to be someone else. Willow struggles with OZ. Buffy struggles with Angel. The need to be powerful, and how they feel less than - causes them to strike out. In Dead Things, Spike manipulates Buffy, Willow...wants Tara back and represses and denies her magic - she buys Tara's lie - and prior like Warren later does with Katrina, she manipulates Tara with magic in All the Way to keep her with her. There's a nice parallel structure at work. Which you can't quite appreciate if you are emotionally invested in the characters or relationships.
On the shifting metaphors? While I agree that they mirror issues with our own life and make things less black and white. They'd work better if the series was populated with more minority characters who weren't killed off or seen here and there. Unfortunately, the inability to hire minorities in lead roles caused these metaphors to become somewhat offensive. A way to counter-act that would have been to make Buffy not a petite blond, but a black woman. And/or Xander black. Veronica Mars did a better job. But Buffy was also a 1990s/early 00's series...and suffers from that historically racist television climate.
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If you compare to Beauty and the Beasts - it is similar, but the metaphor is twisted in that you see it through another lense, that of the abuser. Debbie manipulates Peter, makes him feel like crap, that he has to be someone else.
Willow struggles with OZ. Buffy struggles with Angel. The need to be powerful, and how they feel less than - causes them to strike out. In Dead Things, Spike manipulates Buffy, Willow...wants Tara back and represses and denies her magic - she buys Tara's lie - and prior like Warren later does with Katrina, she manipulates Tara with magic in All the Way to keep her with her. There's a nice parallel structure at work. Which you can't quite appreciate if you are emotionally invested in the characters or relationships.
On the shifting metaphors? While I agree that they mirror issues with our own life and make things less black and white. They'd work better if the series was populated with more minority characters who weren't killed off or seen here and there. Unfortunately, the inability to hire minorities in lead roles caused these metaphors to become somewhat offensive. A way to counter-act that would have been to make Buffy not a petite blond, but a black woman. And/or Xander black. Veronica Mars did a better job. But Buffy was also a 1990s/early 00's series...and suffers from that historically racist television climate.