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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:39:32 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 1/21/2003
You’ll have to forgive me, but, quite suddenly, I’m a little confused as to how this whole Slayer thing actually works.
You would think that I would be immune to such things. That my own personal obsessive digestion of all things Buffy (which basically only allows me to even attempt to write this column) combined with you, the collective readers, diligently filling in any and all gaps that I might leave, doesn’t alleviate any question of this magnitude…well, frankly, I’m shocked.
In fact, I thought that those of us in the know had already agreed on this point, but there it was, live in Technicolor: If Buffy dies, a new slayer will be called.I think I speak for all of us when I say, "huh?"
At first I thought it was just a throwaway line, more for the effect it would have on the potentials than the truth of it. But then, it was mentioned again. And again. So now, I’m guessing all of our posturing about Buffy no longer being the anchor of the slayer line is out the window. I’m not even sure how we became so convinced of this point’s veracity in the first place, but this now calls into question…what?
Everything.
The first question I have, of course, is where is this other slayer that’s running around. If Buffy died twice – and she did – then their should be two additional slayers out there. At least by this new MCI math Joss is spinning at us.
Faith is in jail.
So what about the other?
Worse still, with the gang so liberally throwing this notion around this evening, why hasn’t this been mentioned before? Why weren’t they wondering where this other slayer was? Even if they were content to let her do her own thing last year – a new slayer’s presence was far from necessary in dealing with the trio – wouldn’t a new slayer be their first priority now?
TFE is out there, hunting down everything connected to the Council, you would think our heroes would be concerned about the only other person in the world who could really help them. Not to mention the fact that she would be on hell of a target for the bringers, or worse.
And, for that matter, you would think they would at least check in with the California Penitentiary system to see how Faith is doing.
All this is, more or less, irrelevant because we have the more pressing matter of the new potential in town. We all thought the same thing, of course. The rumors and speculation of Dawn becoming the next slayer – as early as Season 8 – have been circulating long enough that Joss walked us right into his little trap without anyone suspecting a thing. I even commented to Jack that the episode seemed too obvious, until, of course, I turned out to be wrong.Dawn showed both her trademark spunk and maddening stupidity, but we should cut her some slack. Living with the burden of a superhero sister, a past as an unintentional gateway to Armageddon, and a resume that includes Harriet the Spy is not an easy thing. Being given, temporarily at least, the knowledge that she, too, was part of a hero line, with both its inherent pride and fear, then having it taken away only toughens the blow. There is nothing quite as hard as being ordinary in the company of the extraordinary.
Even before his speech, I always gave Xander silent props for being able to soldier on in the face of his commonplace roots. In fact, as I only mentioned a few weeks ago, "The Zeppo" is one of my favorite eps because it deals with Xander’s loneliness and quiet contribution so well. But, it had never been clear to me whether Xander remembered the lessons he learned that night.
Until now.
I’m not convinced that Dawn isn’t still another potential, though this possibility is rapidly dwindling, but, already, there are signs that Buffy is choosing her new charges over her sister. Should Buffy find herself in a position where she could only choose, say, Kennedy or Dawn to save, I’m not sure who she would pick
But, again, like the revelation that Buffy, herself, is still part of the slayer line, I’m a bit confused by the development that Dawn is NOT a potential. It seems that since the final moments of Season 6, when Buffy tossed Lil’ Bit that sword and they fought side by side, that we were grooming Dawn for some kind of greatness. I thought this was something else we had agreed upon.
Casting Dawn’s fate with the mere mortals changes things a little, and, frankly, I’m not really sure what it will mean for the future. Joss wouldn’t make such a point of leading us to believe that Dawn was going to be a potential and then pull the rug out from under us without a good reason.
Bottom line, Dawn still has a big part to play in all of this. We just cannot yet see what it is to be. The good news is that she has a strong ally and confidante in Xander now. Their common bond is both a powerful and important one as the supernatural quotient of this season continues to up itself.
When you have a Slayer, numerous potentials, a high level witch, an ex-demon, and a vampire with a soul facing off against the most powerful evil in imagination, it isn’t easy being the one with nothing but a legacy.
Still, my bet is that Lil’ Bit is ultimately the one who saves the world.
The Other Side of Tuesday…it seems that Andrew has just about integrated himself in the gang, which has turned out to be a good thing. Frankly, the other guy is turning into the funniest addition to the gang since Anyanka.
Good to see Clem again, for no other reason than I’ve been wondering where he’s been all this time.
Early handicapping voted Kennedy as the Potential Most Likely to Succeed, but she has an obvious challenger after tonight. Amanda handled herself extremely well, even before Dawn put her on the spot, but her quick dispatch of the vampire was impressive, to say the least. It will also be interesting to see how she blossoms now that she has found acceptance amongst her peers. Given an opportunity to shine, she might shed her mousy exterior in no time.
The rekindling, or whatever it turns out to be, of the Spike-Buffy fireworks is proving to be a slow smolder. I like the dynamic this time around. Now that their relationship has such history – and some severely trying times behind them – their cautious and undeniably passionate flirtation, the very definition of the forbidden fruit, has so much more weight than before.
It’s also interesting how the newly focused Buffy is allowing this to play out in front of the potentials. It certainly doesn’t seem like Buffy is letting them in intentionally, but it does send an interesting signal to these potentials that they would not ordinarily see. I’ve always felt that Buffy’s strength and (relative) success came not only from her unique connection to friends and family, but also from her unorthodox approach to the job. Buffy plays the other side of the fence, readily using demons and questionable methods to achieve her goals, but it rarely gets the mention it deserves. Demons don’t play by any agreed upon set of rules. There is no Geneva Convention here. Buffy, and Giles, always understood that, and that is why they live while the Council burns.
This is an important lesson for the potentials, particularly in a battle with something like the First. If Buffy does die in this battle, most likely one of these girls is going to replace her. Whoever it turns out to be is going to need to understand all of her lessons right away.
Which makes me wonder…if they did have the balls to actually kill Buffy this season, wouldn’t it be interesting to see "the mantel" passed from one to potential to the next in quick succession (in one big battle, presumably) until it finally rested on the next true one?
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:39:53 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 2/4/2003
I hoped never to do this, friends, but I have to. Frankly, it’s time, and, honestly, I need it.
I’m calling one in.
Let me explain…have you ever had that dream where you’re just falling through space. You fall and fall, your stomach clenching upwards into your throat, and, even though you are sure that it’s just a dream, the fear creeps in. Maybe, this time, it’s for real. I don’t know how I got all the way up here, or why I fell (or was pushed) off, but damn if this doesn’t feel like the real thing.
And just when the fear takes hold, just when your denial is overcome by doubt, when you realize that oh my god! you are actually going to die…
That’s when you wake up.
You bolt upright in your bed, and thank whomever it is you thank for these kinds of things. Later you feel silly that you even fell for it, but we’ve all been there. We’ve all had the dream, in one form or another, and most of us will again.
Thing is…I’m having that dream now.
In mine, I’m falling through a Bespin vanilla sky with orange-purple clouds. At first I ride the air, without fear, enjoying the novelty of the descent. Even as the fear kicks in, as I close my eyes and grit my teeth, I know it is all just a dream. I know I will wake up as soon as I become too scared to deal with the illusion.
The funny thing is, I’m not waking up. In my version, I open my eyes, and instead of the comforting surroundings of my bedroom, I see rock bottom rushing up towards me.
Quickly.
Sometimes the seams rip, people. Sometimes the whole of it all collapses beneath its own weight. Sometimes, you realize that you’ve been smoking cigarettes a full decade longer than you’ve ever intended. Sometimes, your debt outstrips your earnings. That you are alone. Sometimes, there are more reruns on television than new material. Sometimes, work becomes so ridiculously unbearable that you awake to the sounds of your own screaming.
Every morning.
And maybe, sometimes, you just don’t have the faintest clue about how to even begin thinking about how to fix it all.
Granted, I never flayed alive the man who shot my lesbian lover – at least I have that going for me, right? – but that doesn’t make it any easier.
So, I’m calling one in. I want a do-over, people. I want forgiveness and a second chance. I want to take the lessons I’ve learned in my life – the hard way – and put them to good use in a good clean life. I want to make all the right choices now that I know what the wrong ones are. I want to know my limitations and I want to atone for all the excess.
And I think the answer is out there. I think one of you has it, or knows about it. Show me the path, friends, and let me make you proud. Because, these days, all I have is some good friends and the written word. It is the written word that I have to offer – and it is my sincere desire that both their show and my word is why you still come around here – and it is the written word that is going to have to get me over this.
You see, life doesn’t work like it does on television. We may have evolved quite a bit as a broadcasting community – wherein all of life’s problems aren’t solved with 22 minutes of "golly gee, Beave" to undo whatever mess Jack Tripper’s gotten himself into this week – but TV still knows a bang-up morality play when it sees one.
Even on our Buffy.
Even for our Willow.
Only on television, can a girl watch her lesbian lover get shot by an egomaniacal computer nerd, go on a murderous rampage that includes the flaying alive of her lover’s killer AND the attempted destruction of the entire planet, go through magical English countryside retreat rehab, kiss another girl who just happens to be in line to become a superhero in the midst of a war fought against ultimate evil, get turned into the same aforementioned homicidal nerd via a spell cast by a witch said girl once kept as a pet rat for three years, and then be redeemed and reformed by a second kiss – and implied love – from the superhero chick.
Read that again.
It may not be ridiculous, but it is definitely excessive.
We already had enough going on this season without the need for tonight’s Willow developments. Despite the everyday absurdity of most of the above, it was also predictable after a fashion.
Yeah, I get it, Willow could not really be counted on in the coming battles without letting go of both the guilt and fear she has carried around since she went Carrie on everyone. I also understand that Willow needs to realize that the devil inside of her, this unimaginable reservoir of dark magic that wells deep within, is not only a liability. To win this war, the Gang is often going to have to fight fire with fire – big flaming evil in this case – and Willow is going to have to step up and reclaim her place as the biggest baddest female on the planet.
But not like this.
Not now.
We already have enough to deal with on BtVS. We have great material to work with as it is.
Riley Finn giving Buffy the Sophie’s choice of how to save Spike from his failing chip could have been, should have been, an episode in its own right. Throw in a healthy helping of the is he is or is ain’t with Giles and some funny Warren and/or Anya asides, and you’ve got a kick-ass episode. You could have even given me some hot Kennedy-Willow fireworks as an after thought coupled with a serious Willow-Xander heart to heart about letting go and moving on, and we would have all been right there.
We’ve been rolling for awhile. Buffy’s been tearing it up, dramatically speaking, and we’ve been doing our part to eat it all up. We have arguably the best season of the best show on television. We definitely have the most focused season of a mythology driven serial that I’m aware of.
So spare me the histrionics. This I can’t get on board with, and, hopefully, this is the last we’ll speak of it. Do you hear me, Willow? Because this is an affront to rock bottom. It’s insulting to bottoming out.
And to me, because, while I’m certainly not there, I can see it from where I stand.
And this excess…it ain’t it.
The Other Side of Tuesday…my life has been taken over by my iPod. Seriously, it is all that I do now. For those of you not in on this little genius device, do yourself a favor and look into it. I am convinced – convinced – that it is the next technological leap that we have all been waiting for. The one that will single-handedly alter the way in which we organize our lives, like the Model T or microwave popcorn. And don’t even think about waiting for Bill Gates to get it right…we both know he won’t give us anything more than the Edsel.
Just imagine…a life where all the music you could ever want is literally at your fingertips. ALL OF IT. No discs, no cassettes, no removable pieces of any kind. Just a little plastic and chrome box carrying around the history of the world.
It plugs into headphones. It plugs into the car. It plugs into stereo. It plugs into the computer.
I have to stop now, before I really start to rage on this topic. Just get one. Trust me.
In other news…
I’m happy to see that Giles is neither dead nor evil.
Andrew might be funnier, pound for pound, than any character to precede him.
A great number of you have expressed concern that last ep’s contention that the slayer line runs through Buffy undoes all that previously made sense. While I agree, of course, all I can say right now is that we need to have some faith (no pun intended) that either (a) this was always meant to be a red-herring, (b) Joss knows exactly what he is doing, or (c) all of the above.
In any event, patience is the order of the day.
And finally…please, no suicide watch emails. I have way too much of an ego for that, personally (not that I am belittling the topic in any fashion), and, quite honestly, I’m definitely not in that league of rock bottom anyway. In advance, I appreciate your concern, but I didn’t write this for that reason.
In fact, I am aware of just how excessive my words are. Rather than being ironic, let me just say that was the point.
Or at least one of them.
I am, however, fielding job offers.
Additionally, Pearl Jam has released the tour dates for their soon-to-begin tour. If you have yet to see them live and in-person, do yourself the favor, and make sure you catch at least one. Years from now, if you don’t go, you will regret it. My baby sister gave up tickets to see the Dead the tour before Jerry Garcia passed. It would have been her first (and only show), and she still talks about it as one of her top five mistakes in life.
Personally, I am gunning for the leg-ending show at Penn State University at the end of April. I hope to see you there.
And to close…a shout out to the Kid Rock – Sheryl Crow duet "Picture." Who says music in this next millennium is dead?
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:40:30 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 2/11/2003
For some time now, the main question on everyone’s mind has been "who is Principal Wood?" Even with our collective preoccupation over TFE, Giles, Spike’s chip, Dawn’s slayer heritage and/or future…all of it, Wood has always been there, lurking in the background, or basement, rather, with a shovel and a secret.
Well, the cat is out of the bag now. He is the son of a slayer. Most of us didn’t even know it was possible, but, as they say, there is a first time for everything. Buffy’s been good for a lot of firsts, no evil puns intended, so it’s no surprise that neither she nor we were really that surprised.
Still, even as a stand alone revelation, it’s an interesting one. But, Buffy is never one for simple twists, and having Spike be the one who killed Wood’s mother is anything but simple.
The fact is, we were never really asking who Principal Wood was, we were asking what side he was on. Knowing who he is, that solved our problem only long enough to realize it didn’t solve a damn thing.
As good as Wood’s intentions obviously are – he’s Bruce Wayne with less money and a cooler mother – the fact that his mother’s killer is Spike complicates matters beyond prediction. What is the bigger motivation now?
To fight true evil?
To avenge his mother’s death?
These are mutually exclusive ideas now, at least in most scenarios that I can think of. It is not the same thing as asking Giles to fight alongside Angel after Jenny’s murder. Giles knew Angel first. He understands, even if he doesn’t want to, that Angel and Angelus are different people in the same vessel.
But can Wood?
Well, Principal Wood, this is your life.
Being raised by a Watcher, knowing the reality of a world populated with unspeakable evil and unparalleled heroism, training and planning and revealing…the best intentions have nothing on reality. At the heart of Wood’s drive – to kill vampires, to fight evil – has never been a higher calling. It has always been hatred.
And, as Andrew could tell you better than anyone…it is hatred that leads to the dark side.
The Other Side of Tuesday…I’m not exactly sure why Joss suddenly feels the need to pack each episode with extraneous side plots. We were doing so well early on with our focused attention on single themes with clear primary plot points. So why, now, all the clutter?
I speak, of course, of Ashanti and her completely unnecessary side bar. Granted, it’s a reasonable good time to hash (and re-hash) over Xander’s comedic exploits with the opposite sex, but what did it have to do with, well, anything?
If the point was simply to force Ashanti into an episode to up ratings, there were better ways, and certainly better choices of guest star. If you insist on Ashanti, at least make her an ill-fated slayer wannabe, if you have to. That would make some sense and not detract from the greater good.
But, a cat demon?
Intent on opening that seal again?
Does it even make sense that there would be more vampires in there? Why didn’t all come out the first time? Why would TFE even want to go that route a second time, if it was even involved in the planning?
Seriously, what was she hoping to accomplish?
Why was Xander’s blood suddenly enough?
While we’re on it, why did Xander even allow himself to be tied up in the first place? Or go into the basement? Or the High School, for that matter?
Why any of it? (Seriously, I could go on like this all night).
Not to belabor the point, but just sit back and imagine how tight this ep could have been if we were more focused on the Wood-Buffy-Spike triangle. Even without the revelation that Wood was the son of a slayer, even without the knowledge that Spike killed that slayer (and stole her leather), this would have been a more interesting angle.
But the fact remains that Spike did kill Wood’s mother, and, while undoubtedly we will see a great deal more of this play out over the next few weeks, we still would have benefited from more…detail.
Just saying…
In other news, I just want to bring to light something that wunderkind Jack Blair has been tossing around the apartment lately. The question, essentially, is why wasn’t the Watcher’s Council killing every slayer they found?
Now calm down…what he meant – and I agree with him – is why weren’t they killing them under controlled circumstances? Buffy died, and came back (twice), and now, for the first time that we know if, there are two slayers. Double the flavor, double the fun.
Now imagine that the Council "put under" each slayer, in controlled circumstances, revived them, and, basically, created an army of Slayers. If Jack can think of this, why didn’t they? Or Joss for that matter?
Perhaps we should put that on the minutes of the next Council meeting, when Giles gets it up and running again.
Also…
My main focus might have been on Wood this evening, as wonderfully shocking as his revelation may have been, it certainly wasn’t the best in my opinion. Andrew has slowly, and not so quietly, become one of my favorite reasons to tune in each week. I admit, I already knew about Wood’s little secret before this evening, but I didn’t know which way "the Other guy" was going to go.
It bears mentioning that Andrew’s deception was no small thing for him. TFE, in the guise of Jonathan, made a powerful offer. In many ways, it was probably the smarter decision, too. Let’s be honest, evil isn’t going anywhere. The odds are stacked significantly against our heroes. From all logical points of view, it doesn’t stand to reason that they would even have a chance. The idea that they would attempt to destroy the root of all evil – a being that existed before time, and one slated to exist long after it has run its course – is preposterous on its face.
It takes great resolve and courage to even deny something like TFE, let alone openly plot against it. In my mind, Andrew has served his penance, so far as such a thing is possible. For the purposes of this battle, there had better not be any more hemming and hawing over his place in the coming battle. Andrew is firmly rooted in the good book with me, right now, and I hope we can all agree on that.
But even more than that, Andrew did something tonight that has rarely, if ever, happened on this show. He received material information that was given only to him, and, contrary to every example set by Buffy, Willow, even Giles, he immediately shared it with the group, allowing for no misunderstandings or incidental carnage. Buffy tends to only reveal information after she’s been caught – Angel coming back from hell springs instantly to mind – but Andrew’s decisive call to include everyone from the start revealed at least one important piece of information (that TFE still has plans for Spike) that probably would have been lost otherwise.
Good for you Andrew.
And, just for good measure, as a counterpoint, the argument could be made that Buffy knew (just by doing the math) that Spike was the vampire who killed Wood’s mother. She should have known, and yet, she seems to have not told anyone. It isn’t even clear that she has told the gang who Wood is.
We all know what consequences lie ahead if I am, indeed, correct on this matter.
Shame on you, Buffy.
And some final notes…
Kennedy and Willow, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
Where were all the SITs tonight? They were alluded to, but we only got to see Kennedy, Amanda, and the hilarious new Chinese addition. I also hope they’ve got a second place for all of them to stay. If not, I’d be looking into it. Couldn’t Buffy sell the house (even at a loss with Sunnydale’s plummeting property values, and get something more secure with more rooms? Even if it’s a concrete slab, the world is apparently ending, why do fancy digs even matter?
Does anyone watch the news? Los Angeles is in a total blackout and the sky was raining fire. This would seem to me to be material.
Does anyone use the phone? With TFE in Sunnydale and The Beast in LA, it would stand to reason that one gang would have called the other for assistance by now. Even if both groups had their hands full and couldn’t do anything, I at least want to know that they know about each other. The alternative is ridiculous.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:40:54 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 2/18/2003
There is more to being a champion than being a warrior.
There is more to being a champion than being on the side of right.
There is more to being a champion than being a superhero.
For a long time now, on both Buffy and Angel, we have watched with fascination, with awe, with worship as a group of seemingly – outwardly – normal people grew through decidedly abnormal circumstances to rise above their limitations to defend something so far above them, so beyond their comprehension that it almost defies words.
We have watched them accept a duty – perhaps a sacred duty - and create a new standard for themselves, season after season, week after week, confronting an ever escalating series of catastrophes.
And, time and time again, we have seen them prevail.
But being a champion does not mean answering the call to duty.
There is more to it.
Buffy said it herself, her group has always been reactive. Evil rises, they fight it back.
What she had been was a warrior. A powerful, well-intentioned force of good, but still just a soldier, a weapon for someone else to wield. In the beginning, it was the Watcher’s Council that brandished her. This would have gone on forever, as it had with every slayer before her, but something changed.
This time, something was different.
That something, of course, was Buffy. She wasn’t like her predecessors. Among the chosen, for whatever reason, Buffy was the chosen. She was the promise not of what the slayer was, but of what it could be.
Should be.
The Council always thought of the slayer as a line. As a series. The slayer’s role was to protect and to serve for as long as she possibly could. Then the role would pass to the next. None of the girls were supposed to live. This was tragic, surely, but viewed as part of the bargain. Humanity gets a warrior to protect it from that which it cannot protect itself, but it would be a flawed thing.
Better, but not best.
Giles was the first to see that Buffy did not have to be the same.
And Buffy became more, not because she truly was chosen above all others before her, but because she believes it. They all do, deep down, that this time, this group, this unprecedented assortment of talent and circumstance has come together because there is something even more special about their slayer.
They believe it so much, that nothing will stop them, not even death. Their slayer died – twice – and they refused to accept that as the final answer. They ripped their warrior from paradise in their stubborn refusal to accept anything less than total victory.
Because, in their minds, the Scoobies aren’t going to die, they are going to retire.
And it is this faith, this cockiness, this hope and belief that makes them Champions. Not their strength, not their talents, not their circumstances. They have, in the past, risen so far above the examples of slayers gone by because they believe they have no choice, because they will win outright, someday.
Angel realized this and openly accepted the fact that he would play a crucial role in humanity’s (time’s) final battle, not because if his great reward, because it was who he was.
Buffy, in her own narrow-minded way, knew this for five solid seasons. She knew it when she beat the Master. She knew it when she killed Angel. She knew it when she blew up the mayor. She knew it when she finished Adam. And she knew it in her final sacrifice to undo Glory.
And, at each step, her friends understood more and more the role that they had to play and took on more and more responsibility with each foe. Willow tried to (and did) restore Angel’s soul. The entire high school took up arms against the Mayor. Giles, Willow, and Xander joined with Buffy to destroy Adam. And the final battle against Glory required all of their collective talents working in precise unison to simply prevent the world from ending.
And let’s not forget that it was Giles who extinguished Glory from our world forever, protecting Buffy from compromising her hero’s morality in the process.
As a group, they have moved ever closer to the stuff of myth and legend.
But then Buffy died, again.
Giles ran away, Willow got lost, and Spike became someone else. Buffy came back…wrong, wounded.
Along the way, they forgot that they were special, and, instead, concentrated on simply holding on to the threads of their lives.
Gone was the belief, and, with it, the invincibility. No, not invincibility…inevitability. Of their purpose. Of their place in it all.
It came at the worst time, because this battle is the one they had been building to. This conflict was the confluence of their prior belief and their opportunity to make it true. They were – and are – no longer champions.
Again, they are simply warriors.
And they’re getting their asses kicked because of it.
A few weeks ago, Buffy seemed to understand this. She seemed to have a breakthrough. She declared their gathering an army, and proclaimed her intention to take the fight to the enemy.
She sounded like a General. She sounded like a champion.
But the promise has gone unfulfilled. On the surface, Buffy has redefined the role of the slayer, but there is no strategy there. There is no leadership.
All around her, the army is waiting to be led. They are waiting to be molded. But all they do is go through the motions because they have no plan. Still, Buffy and crew react. Buffy wants to understand this. She almost does. It is why she lashed out at everyone when Chloe died.
Her speech was meant to be Patton. It was meant to be a kick in the ass that jump-started the troops. But she was all over the place, and, in the end, even after demanding that the girls follow her orders, she didn’t tell them what to do.
Instead, she tested them.
In the end, Buffy failed to realize that the test was as much for her as it was for Spike and Willow. She didn’t step up and do what was necessary, either by taking the gift of power or by becoming a true leader.
And that’s the piece that Buffy is now missing: there is more to being a leader than telling people you are in charge. You still have to lead.
Time is running out, however. If Buffy is going to lead them, now is the time.
The Other Side of Tuesday…The good news is that, while Buffy may not understand this situation, Spike does. At least now.
I missed the old Spike. I didn’t even realize it until Buffy pointed it out, but we’ve had a great deal more William than Spike for a long time, now. His transformation from ruthless adversary, from literal big bad to neutered puppy, to good soul has been a fascinating and interesting one.
It has been nothing short of great television, and, as a viewer, I have loved the Spike storyline above all others for a very long time. He has become one the most nuanced and evolved characters in, at least, my memory.
But there is something to the original Spike that we have sorely missed. A certain fire. A certain lack of ruthlessness. A failure to close the deal.
Buffy sees this, and she called him on it.
It was, as far as leadership decisions go, one of the few she has gotten right so far.
The old Spike is back now, but with a soul. What this means, and where it leads, will be interesting, and I’m not exactly sure what to expect or what he will be.
But when he brought back that leather, he announced that whatever it is he is to become, it now looks like a champion.
~BtVS~
This past weekend, just in time for the blizzard that wouldn’t stop, I received an advance uncorrected proof of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosphy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, edited by James B. South. According to the back jacket, this book is not a casual compendium of things Buffy, but rather, "using the insights of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Kant, twenty-seven up-and-coming young philosophers provide an entertaining introduction to philosophy and explore the rich universe of a show whose popularity spans generations."
Now, that’s a mouthful.
Obviously, the book isn’t for everyone, and I would submit that – as a stand alone – it definitely is not for everyone, particularly those without any exposure to formal philosophical thought and it’s history. Much of the terminology is specific and undefined, and the vocabulary and style are not for the weak-minded.
That said, it can be an interesting and compelling read. Those with the tools to freely debate Nietzsche and Freud will have no trouble at all negotiating the technical aspects of the essays, but, even those without more formalized training who still maintain an interest in matters such as these will find many – if not all – of the discussions fascinating both from a philosophical bent, but also as a unique entry to the world which Joss Whedon has so carefully constructed.
Personally, I found it to be a fantastic insight into the Buffyverse.
Essays include Faith and Plato: "You’re Nothing! Disgusting, Murderous Bitch!," Prophecy Girl and the Powers That Be: The Philosophy of Religion in the Buffyverse, and "My God, It’s Like a Greek Tragedy": Willow Rosenberg and Human Irrationality. My personal favorite thus far is an essay (Old Familiar Vampires: Radicalism and Liberalism in the Politics of the Buffyverse) which, to a certain extent, implies that the Slayer Gang is unconsciously waging a pseudo-Marxist revolution against corrupt capitalist ideals signified by "evil" demonic stand-ins for corporate and governmental power (an idea which I would like to explore within this space whenever appropriate.)
I will save a more detailed and thorough review/analysis of the entire work for a later date. For starters, we only have so much space from week to week, and, more importantly, I won’t even pretend to have a comprehensive understanding of everything contained within its pages. I will say that, when it becomes available to the public, I highly recommend you check it out.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:41:14 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 2/25/2003
When the world finally ends, will there be a record?
Who will keep it?
Will it be the truth?
Will it even matter?
All and all, the idea of recording – visually – the exploits of arguably the most important force for good in the history of the world is a good one. Simply as a training tool, the tapes would be invaluable. But, let’s be honest, as a permanent record of, perhaps, the end of the world, for those who did survive, it would be so much more.
Mythology, both "real" and imagined, is rife with tales of would-be heroes being instructed by their predecessors. We all believe Buffy to be the last protector of the Hellmouth – she was told as much last week – but what if she’s not? Mythology is also full of tales where the signs and prophecies are misread, misinterpreted…wishful thinking.
Already, in our little circle, in our little show, with its little prophecy, we have serious questions about the vampire with a soul who would be champion.
Is it Angel, as we always assumed, or Spike? It has been my feeling for some time that Spike’s path to redemption, specifically his intention to be redeemed against his nature, is more worthy of the prophecies. That Angel’s mantel was forced upon him, and, no matter how strong a force of good he may be, he is not as worthy.
Or, perhaps, worthy enough. I only write all of this to defend what, to many of you (at times myself included), may have been indefensible. Andrew’s pet project, whatever its intentions, did come off as a tad silly, if not more than a tad off-putting.
More simply put, my initial reaction was, and is, "Huh?" Andrew may have believed he was recording history, but what he was really doing was re-writing it. Ultimately, Buffy saw through his charade, and to positive effect, but it didn’t change how disorienting the process was. On one viewing of the episode, as it unfolded, it was hard to reconcile, at times, what we were seeing with what we thought we knew.
There is a lesson here, of course, about perspective and how it affects events. The "who" is as important as the "what" of a thing. But you knew that, and it need not be our focus today. Because, even as Andrew turned the focus onto himself, the role he played, and the role he might still play, he still managed to catch insight into the world around him.
To wit..
.Kennedy and Willow are very close and, now, very public. On one hand, this is simply nice for Willow, and, since we care about Willow, that is a good thing. However, there is a downside to all of this. I’m reluctant to bring it up – I’ve apparently walked the wrong side of line with the gay and lesbian community for my point of view on Tara’s death – but Kennedy is becoming something of a problem, both for the gang and the show.
I plan on covering this in more depth in my promised "Buffy Goes To War" special, but it bears mentioning here and now: Kennedy has overstepped her bounds, and in a big way. There is no clear chain of command, at least in a traditional sense, with the Buffy Army, but there are some rules that are understood.
Buffy is in charge. Right or wrong, she must be seen as the head of the entire operation. What happens behind closed doors, between Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and, maybe, Spike, is for them and them alone, and the instant one of the soldiers, in this case Kennedy, attempts to undo that, you have a recipe for disaster.
The problem here, specifically, is that, because Kennedy is now clearly Willow’s girlfriend, the slayerette believes that she has an equitable seat at the table. Even if that were true (and it shouldn’t be) she still needs to understand that you don’t argue with the titular boss in front of the grunts, as she did last week.The other problem is that, when she isn’t channeling the dark magiks, Willow has a tendency to be too nice. She doesn’t have the confidence in who she is and what she has done – for the gang, for the world – and it plagues her. She waffles. She hems. She haws.
When Kennedy found her voice, Willow needed to stop her, either right then (preferable) or in private. There can be no confusion here, because lives can be lost.
My bet is, if the Kennedy situation isn’t fixed, and fixed soon, Willow is going to have a second lover to mourn in just under a year, and I’m afraid what that will do to our gal’s complexion.
Anya and Xander has run its course – with a nice, touching, and private payoff – but why is a little less clear. The way I understood it, Xander left Anya at the altar not because he didn’t love her, but…well, why exactly? Because he wasn’t sure how their love could grow against the backdrop of their work? Their mission? Because his feelings for Buffy, even if they aren’t feelings of amorous love, are complicated. Whatever they may be, they are still greater than his love – true as it might be – for Anya
.It’s a shame, in a way. People like Anya and Xander aren’t destined for traditional happiness with traditional people. Perhaps, after this is all done, and their time as champions are passed to others, they might be able to settle down to a quiet life elsewhere…but I don’t think so. If they survive, things will never be the same for them anyway. I was just hoping they’d find a little slice of heaven for themselves in the middle of it all.
But most of all, Buffy still surprises. Inside, she is a born leader with an understanding of her job and its possibilities that are unparalleled in her line. Her handling of Andrew, as brutal as she appeared initially, ultimately hit the right notes. Just when you count her out, she mixes pressure with understanding, and voila…results.
But does this mean Andrew has finally achieved his much sought after redemption?
The Other Side of Tuesday…Wood tried to kill Spike, plain and simple. The fact that evil, in the guise of a temporary agent of the first, saved Spike is probably coincidence, but it does bear remembering, just in case. Either way, this situation between the two main men in Buffy’s life needs to be resolved, and soon. The fact that even Andrew could sense the tension, misinterpreted as it may have been, means that the others, Buffy in particular, should sense the gravity of the situation.
To say that Buffy and the gang need a focused Wood on their side is an understatement. The end is nigh, people, and we need everyone on the same page, plain and simple.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:41:30 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 3/25/2003
It’s been a long time, folks, and much has happened since we last spoke.
For starters, “shock and awe” is now a part of the national lexicon, I know the weather report for Basrah but not my own city, and, according to the Mutant Enemy calendar, last Wednesday apparently comes after this Tuesday.
I actually read George Will describe the French as, in a clever nod to Groundskeeper Willy, “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”
Faith showed up on Angel, took immediate control, and defined the Slayer as general. She also got pummeled and eaten, along with having her spirit temporarily beaten, but she’s back, strong, and on her way to Sunnydale. When she arrives, much will be different, and, as we all know by now, we should expect things to pick up considerably when we resume.
In the meantime, we had to deal with Wood and Spike, and their unresolved history.
What is most shocking to me is that Giles sold out Spike, and Buffy, so readily. I understand where Giles is coming from on this, of course. Buffy has not, in my opinion, exhibited the best leadership, her protestations to the contrary. She confuses good intentions with good strategy, and Giles, clearly, sees this. He distrusts her judgment, and he has every reason to.
Which does not mean that Giles was right in this case, and for many reasons. Regardless of what mistakes Buffy might be making, Giles should know better than to maneuver behind her back in times like this. For this Army to function, they still must trust each other, and, regardless of what is happening behind the scenes, Buffy must appear to all to be in complete control.
Now that trust is broken, perhaps irrevocably.
Additionally, in this case, Buffy is right that she needs Spike for this battle. While I agree that, if there were no other recourse, a dangerous Spike must be killed, but only as a last resort. So long as there was another option – one that Giles knew about and, ironically, also one that worked – killing Spike should not have been on the table.
All the more so without Buffy’s approval.
So, where does that leave us? Spike is free of his trigger, which is a good thing, but the price was a high one. Buffy has literally shut Giles out. The power and the knowledge are now divided, which can’t be too shabby where The First is concerned
.I’m not sure where Wood stands, or where he wants to. At the very least, he cannot be trusted. At worst, he is a rogue combatant, perhaps susceptible to The First.
With Willow (and Faith), these are the most important members of the “good guys.” But now, they might just be scattered to the wind.
The disappointment here, more than anything else, is that, more than Watcher, more than advisor, Giles was a father to Buffy. Both of them felt that way, whether they could bring themselves to tell each other or not. This makes what Giles did the worst kind of betrayal.
We expect, in our way, to be let down by those around us, but it never hurts so much when it is our own parents.
And that was the point tonight.
Wood has been trying to earn his mother’s love all these years by trying to avenge her death. She knew what her priorities were, and what they should have been (at least from her way of thinking), and that meant putting her “work” before her child. But if he could kill Spike, and avenge her death, perhaps he could move up in her eyes.
Interesting too, that Spike would be carrying around so many unresolved maternal issues. It makes sense, of course, now that we’ve seen it. What else could turn such a doddering mama’s boy into such a vicious attention hound?
Hey, I’ve got issues with my parents too. We all do. They made me who I am, and, sure, I’ve got problems, but, as easy as it is to blame our parents for what we’ve become, that still doesn’t let us off the hook. What we do with it, where we take it, that is entirely up to us.
Ultimately, our lives and what we do with them, come down to our own choices.
The same applies here.
It looks to me that Spike understand this lesson.
It remains to be seen what Wood does with it.
And god only knows how Buffy will react.
We’ve got five episodes left. It’s about time we find out.
The Other Side Of Tuesday…what happens when Faith comes back? If you really think she is going to settle for being Buffy’s right hand when she arrives from L.A., you need to check your medicine. And now, with a clear and definitive schism apparent between Buffy (with Spike) and Giles (with, perhaps, Wood), years of unresolved bad blood and tension still between the two slayers, and what could be a vastly disparate opinion on leadership style…could we see a Faith, Giles, Wood troika separating away from Buffy and the slayerettes?
Would the Slayers-in-waiting even side with Buffy over Giles (i.e. would the young ones trade an ensouled vampire for an escaped murderer)?
More importantly, how are the Slayers-in-waiting to take the existence of two slayers? Will they try to get to the bottom of how the Chosen One is actually chosen once and for all?
Tune in next…well, in two weeks (we hope) to find out.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:41:47 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 4/17/2003
All I really want to talk about is Xander’s eye.
We all do.
That Xander would suffer such a painful and permanent sacrifice is more shocking than Tara, Jenny Calendar, and Joyce combined, and they died. It is more surprising than Angel losing or Spike gaining a soul. Xander is one of the original three, seriously one of the untouchables.
And in one brief moment, an afterthought to the battle really, Joss hammered home the absolute deadly seriousness of the situation Buffy is now in.
This war is for keeps, and, for us at least, it will be the last.
What never occurred to me before last night, is that this may well be the last war for them as well.
It is clear, we are to believe that the costs were staggering. Two Slayerettes dead, one severely wounded, and, of course, the shocking injury to Xander. But, mush like CNN’s (and their kin) underestimation of the resolve the American public would show in the face of American casualties, perhaps Joss underestimates ours. It is a shame, to be sure, that young lives are lost. It is tragic, to be certain, that their sacrifice was necessary at all. Yet, this is war, and in war there will always be loss. There will always be death.
Buffy, and her charges, are in no less than a fight for their very right to exist. They did not ask to be singled out. They were chosen, first by some ambiguous power, later by it’s enemy. Whether they want to fight or not, whether they oppose the very nature of violence and war and killing, is totally and irrevocably irrelevant.
This evil will come for them no matter what alternative they offer.
So Buffy did the only thing she could. She took the fight to her enemy. There is no point in waiting around to be killed. This is even more true if you have the power to do something about it. Calling the girls to fight with her, enlisting them in her ponytail army, was as much an act of protection as aggression.
But, for all of the things Buffy has done right on the surface – the training, the protection, the lessons – her Army is more a collection of missed opportunities than anything else.
In a nutshell, what Buffy fails to understand is that these girls are more than an Army in name only. They are a fighting force, the only capable of dealing with the Evil to come. That means Buffy has to be a leader in practice as well as name.
Buffy has to be more than inspirational and moody, she needs strategy. She needs a command structure. She needs to give the girls purpose.None of this has come easily to her, but none are as deficient as her strategic shortcomings. Simply put, there isn’t a trap devised that Buffy can’t fall into, both willingly and knowingly. This has always been true. For all of the good Giles has accomplished with Buffy all these years, he has never given her the gift of thoughtful planning.
Perhaps he should have taken some time out to teach her chess or give her “The Art of War” on audiocassette. Buffy is impulsive. She rushes in whenever she can, and often wins on pure effort and sheer determination alone.
Both the Master and Glory were defeated because Buffy could not take no for an answer, and not even dying could get her to take the hint.
Adam and the Mayor failed because they underestimated her abilities and the strength of those around her.
Angel and Spike, as villains, were not the best tacticians either, which evened the playing field.
As for the trio, they were human and still they managed to do at least as much harm as any other big evil Buffy faced. As silly as Warren was, he was also smart. The trio constantly out-thought Buffy, rarely letting her fight them with her strengths. They recognized on a fundamental level that if they let Buffy play her game, so to speak, they wouldn’t stand a chance. They forced her to play on their field, and she never really felt comfortable.
There is a lesson here, one both hard fought and not easily won. When dealing with a superior force, in strength and resources, one must use superior tactics. The First Evil can out muscle Buffy whenever she wants. She has a nearly unlimited supply of evil minions to do her bidding. She has time on her side. And, as a noncorporeal being there are serious doubts as to whether she can even be harmed in any realistic way.
As noble as taking the fight to TFE might seem, it is also irredeemably stupid when taken literally. They know the first cannot be stopped physically on this plane, so Buffy keeps taking the fight to her captains.
So what? Every time Buffy kills one, another will just take its place. TFE will just keep trying until one of her minions either is truly superior or has, as spike put it, a very good day.
The key for the Scoobies is to find out the specifics of TFE’s plan. They know, from Anya and Giles’ visit to the Spacing Guild all those months ago, that a very specific ripple in the Slayer pool has created a convergence of competing realities that would allow the TFE to rid the world of the Slayer line forever.
This entire war is about opportunity. The bad guys find themselves with a set of worldly circumstances that they can exploit. That is only reason why TFE has mustered so much of her forces and energies at this time. Her war can be one in the here and now.
Buffy’s only real defense – and our collective fates – hinges on understanding and undoing that flaw in reality that has made the extinction of the Slayer possible. Without that, TFE has nothing to gain by this war, and, hopefully, at the very least, the status quo between good and evil can be restored.
The problem is, Buffy is not capable of realizing that.
Neither, unfortunately, is Faith (whose presence is very welcome, but we’ll save larger discussion of her until after she actually does something of significance).
The hope lies with Giles, but the schism between student and teacher is a major hindrance to that cause. Both are at fault, but Giles should have known better. He knows better than anyone else that Buffy’s strength lies in her loyalty, and his open challenge of that where Spike was concerned was a catastrophic error. The fact remains that he is almost always right when he has something to say, clearly illustrated by his vain attempts to slow Buffy’s impulsive hand in her rush to confront Caleb.
Five weeks left, and Buffy must defeat Caleb (already one of the coolest and most effective villains in BtVS lore) just to have the honor of squaring off against TFE again. Caleb, for all of his nasty might, is still just the captain.
Time is running short. Buffy must understand all of this in a hurry, or, truly all will be lost.
The Other Side Of Tuesday…isn’t it time that Buffy officially call in all the reserves. Pride has to be out the window now. This situation is so far beyond her control that every favor needs to be called in yesterday.
That means calling Riley. It means calling the Initiative, the Army, Whomever, Whatever exists of what was once Maggie Walsh’s pet project. The consequences, the sheer scope of this current Armageddon is such that to not call in every available resource is not only foolish, but also selfishly suicidal. You know as well as I that, as a leading force in demon fighting, the American government is fatally flawed. But it is also well-trained muscle.
Buffy believes that, should certain things go horribly awry, a gateway is going to open up beneath her and let loose thousands upon thousands of super-vampires. Are you going to tell me that a couple hundred Marines with assault rifles aren’t going to be helpful? What about tanks? Surgical air strikes?
To be honest, the fact that the Scoobies and the Angel gang didn’t get on the horn to each other the second they realized the seriousness of their respective situations borders on the kind of negligent homicide that nets you the chair in Texas.
Okay, bad example, but the point is still sound.
On BtVS you had the destruction of the Watcher’s Council and a declaration of war from THE FIRST EVIL. On Angel, a reign of fire, the blacking out of the sun, and the BEAST, who at first glance seemed invincible and bore a strange resemblance to ultimate evil from a Catholic perspective.
These were no small incidents, and each bore the mark of the true end of the world. They owed it to us, as the protected, to a least talk to each other. Pooling forces may have been impossible once it became clear that they each had their own problems, but they didn’t know that.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:43:35 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 4/30/2003
All good things must come to and end.
Friends come and go. They leave. They die. We grow, and change, and the people we once were are no longer relevant. Our relationships evolve; the roles we play become forever altered.
Sometimes, the decisions we make are almost too difficult to contemplate, but in the end, we must follow our hearts no matter what the consequences. No matter what is undone or forever broken.
Buffy is no longer The Slayer.
We knew it was coming, but I’m not sure we were prepared for it to go down like this.
Understand, this is not about Faith. This is purely about what I’ve been saying for weeks: Buffy has failed as a general. She has failed as a leader. Most importantly, she has failed as an authority.
Understand also, that this was not a Palace Coup. As much as Buffy may believe that Giles sent Spike away to remove his voice in these proceedings, this crisis of leadership was started, and ultimately finished, because of her actions.
I have discussed, often in great depth, Buffy’s specific failings up until this point. She has lacked any semblance of inspiration, strategy, or understanding of her situation almost from the moment she declared war on The First. Until now, the group followed because they never believed there was an alternative. Giles anointed Buffy "the plan" from the start and never conceived that there would need to be more. But his understanding of Buffy, and the Scoobies, has been outmoded at best. When he left, Buffy was at the pinnacle of a collective effort that relied on the strength of its members working in tandem. They had been divided before, of course, but, when push ultimately came to shove, they always reunited behind an understanding that it was there was force greater than the sum of their parts in that unity.
The four of them - Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Xander - had become a unit that balanced their respective strengths and weaknesses to become something previously unseen in history. It was always this collective that allowed Buffy to be the most successful slayer of her line, and it was the very reason that Buffy has so outlived the ones who came before her.
But when Giles abandoned Buffy, sending her out into the world to become an adult on her own right, the force became unbalanced. The tragedies that beset the group in season 6 forever changed them, and the parts no longer fit together the same way. Too much has happened, too much of their lives have become complicated. The decisions they have made without the careful guidance of their father have led to a genuine basis of distrust and hesitation.
There is a lesson here, about young adults facing their most difficult decisions at a time when they have the least ability to make them, and parents having to come to grips with the mistakes their children make. But more is at stake here than career and family. The fate of the world rests on these children, and perhaps it wasn’t right to allow them to just find their own way.
None of that matters now. The fact is, we are here, and it is not a pretty place. Over the past two years, absent the watchful eye of Giles, Buffy has become increasingly isolated from her support. Most of the reasons are good ones - no one can so easily cope with the changes Buffy has had to endure, and we’re not even pretending to include the added pressures created by being ripped out of heaven - but that too is irrelevant.
Buffy no longer speaks for the group, because she no longer stands for them. Her goals, her understanding of life, are no longer in line with her friends. But that too would not matter if she didn’t shut them out.
The coup, if you will, only happened because Buffy’s final plan made no sense. It was plain to anyone listening to her that she was grasping at straws. She was clinging to power and authority - in the form of this reckless and ill-founded raid - because she couldn’t think of anything else to do. All she needed to do was reach out and include others, to simply allow everyone to put their heads together and formulate a plan, and this would all have been avoided.
She left them no choice. She gave them an order that bore only risk but no reasonable expectation of success or reason.
Faith called her on it. Not because she felt it was time for Buffy to step aside, quite the contrary, but because she felt that, together, there might be a better way. Faith verbalized what everyone in that room was thinking, but she never tried to usurp Buffy’s power.
It was Woods that changed the nature of the meeting and put Buffy on the defensive. He was right to do so, but it was his recognition that Faith had equal stake and equal power, that began Buffy’s end. And Buffy knew it. You could see it in her yes.
All Faith asked for was something to put her faith in. All she needed was a reason, a real reason to see it Buffy’s way, and that, too, would have been fine. But Buffy didn’t have anything. The entire crux of her argument was, "I am the slayer, I have a hunch and I always come through, so do as I say."
But Giles was right, all Buffy offered were windmills, illusions of power, illusions of a plan, illusions of her own ability to usher them all through this.
It was too much to ask, too much to simply go on faith.
That’s all the Pony Tail Army needed. It was the excuse they needed to voice their fears and stand up for their own right to live. They came there for protection, scared girls who reluctantly took up a calling, and, while fighting for that survival was a fair part of the bargain, the fight still had to make sense.
Willow and Xander only sealed the deal. They were the only two who could have turned back the tide, but Buffy gave them no choice either. They too remembered how it used to be, how their ideas and plans and strengths were needed. They may not have ever been equals, but they had a seat at the table and they earned it. Willow and Xander were always civilians who chose the fight. They learned and grew with the struggle, not because they were forced into it, but because they truly believed that what they were doing was right. But for some time, Buffy had begun to discount them because they weren’t called to it.
At some point, and being resurrected will have this effect on you, Buffy came to believe that she was more than chosen. She was the chosen amongst the chosen, and while there is much circumstantial evidence to support this, there is no proof. No prophecy, no codex, anointed Buffy messiah.
(cont. next post)
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:43:54 GMT -5
Anya summed it up best:
You really do think you’re better than we are...but we don’t know. We don’t know if you’re actually better. You came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that’s the legacy. But, you didn’t earn it. You didn’t work for it. You’ve never had anybody come up to you and say that you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn’t make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.
The other people in the room, they did choose this. They did decide to join this fight, and their places at the table were earned. Each of them has proven, time and time again, that, despite their ordinariness, they were capable of being entrusted with these decisions. None of them wanted the power for themselves, but they did want the right to be included in the decisions that affected whether they would live or die.
They earned that much.
Again, Faith did not want to be in charge. She rejected the very idea. And still, Buffy could not get past their past. Faith came to Sunnydale to help save the world. She came to help Buffy save the world, in fact, and willingly deferred to her at first. She didn’t have to come. Faith’s debt - her contract for redemption - was always with Angel and Wesley. Buffy never wanted any part of it, and could never accept it for what it was.
The old Faith, the one who killed and plotted against Buffy is no more. Much like Angel and Spike, she is a killer now possessing a soul. Her heart is in the right place, and she is seeing all of this - Buffy, The First, Right and Wrong - clearly.
A final time, even after Faith offered Buffy a way to salvage her leadership, Buffy forced the Army’s hand. She went petty and personal, and further illustrated her lack of clarity, her inability to lead. Faith bluntly gave Buffy the opportunity to be a part of the team, and Buffy, even more bluntly, rejected it.
Dawn’s coda, and Buffy’s expulsion from the house, was just the icing on the cake. The statement, that Buffy couldn’t stay, was powerful, but ultimately symbolic of Buffy’s place in all of this.
But Buffy’s path to redemption is still there. On the porch, finally Buffy showed signs of the leadership they always wanted. By passing the torch to Faith in private, Buffy legitimized Faith as general, and offered the strength that Faith needed.
Don’t be afraid to lead them. Whether you wanted it or not, their lives are yours. It’s only going to get harder. Protect them, but lead them.
And, with a single look, Buffy conveyed that, despite everything that went wrong, she still only intended to do what was right.
It has become clearer now, how this will all end. The specifics, the details, those we still don’t know. But, Buffy’s path, her destiny, as she has always said in her gloomiest and most introspective moments, is to be alone.
Whatever part Buffy herself has to play, it will be on her own. There is a growing sense of dread that this will be her final sacrifice, that the scared sixteen year old girl who wasn’t ready to die at the hands of the master, has come to terms with the final act shared by all messiahs...
...to die alone to save us all.
Spike told her that someday Buffy will no longer fear death. She will no longer reject it, but, instead, embrace it. That she will need to know, once and for all, how it all ends for her. She will, ultimately, suffer the fate of all slayers before her, and she will die doing what no one asked her if she wanted to do.
Death, after all, is her gift.
~~~~~
The Other Side Of Tuesday… As you probably know by now, not only is BtVS leaving us for good this May, but ScoopMe is as well. This is a decision that deeply saddens me, as my time here, and with you, was very important to me. Buffy has been an important part of our lives, more than just a simple television show, and it is has been gratifying in a way words cannot truly express that you would choose to voice that expression with us here. I know I speak for Jen Sonstein, who came before me, that it has always been an honor and a privilege to be a part of this experience with you.
Therefore, I want to extend an invitation to you all. The week following the series finale, there will be one more chance for us to gather. We will wrap up and discuss not just the end of the season, but the entire series run. It will be a chance for us to follow the evolution of something very special, and truly look at it, one final time, as one single piece, one connected story that has been a part of our lives for seven years.
And we will say goodbye, properly, to both Buffy and our friends here at ScoopMe.
I look forward to hearing all of the things you wish to remember about the show, from all things favorite to a final comprehension of what it was Joss tried so hard to tell us. Someone once wrote that life is a lesson you learn when you are done. Let us learn this lesson together.
Until then, we have three joyous uninterrupted weeks to celebrate this final glorious story arc, and watch as the final chapter unfolds.
I hope you join me.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:44:41 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 5/7/2003
When we last gathered, Buffy was ousted as Head Slayer and from her own house, Faith was being handed the reins of a dysfunctional army, and Spike was discovering that there might be hope after all.
Buffy had a hunch that Caleb was hiding something powerful at the winery.
Faith suspected that Buffy’s brazen leadership would serve only to get everyone killed.
In the end, both Slayers were right. Buffy was vindicated when her hunch on the winery proved both correct and fruitful. Faith, after a brief bout of confusion, organized the army and got them quickly into fighting shape.
That Buffy would be vindicated, and not, simultaneously should not be a surprise. Many will be tempted to say the coup in the Summers house from the week before now amounts to treason, but that is an oversimplification. Buffy’s plan, her methods, were still fundamentally unsound. The results the army members balked at - that they would die being among their complaints - were still no less likely because Buffy’s hunches about the weapon were proven correct.
I said last week that Buffy would need to go this final road alone. It is her destiny. That she realized it, and acted upon it appropriately so quickly, is satisfying. The hour, after all, is named after her. An apocalypse of this magnitude has room for many heroes. There does not need to be just the one, but Buffy still must be chief among them.
At Graduation Day, Buffy was the one who killed the mayor. She slayed the big bad, and she deserves the credit for it. But Willow, Xander, Giles, Oz, Angel, Wesley, and the majority of the senior class were instrumental in that victory. They all deserve credit for the roles they played, and some were heroes. Xander led the class that day, and, to a large degree, his leadership and tactics saved many lives.
Against Glory, Buffy defeated the God. She faced her head on, went blow for blow with her, and ultimately beat Glory into a pulp. Giles performed the final act of killing her, but, again, Buffy slayed the big bad. And again, the others played a large role. They fought valiantly. Willow drained Glory of some of her power, restored Tara, and coordinated their movements telepathically. Xander and Spike both stood toe to toe with Glory, and both played an instrumental role in her defeat.
Things are different now, but not so different as one would first believe. Buffy will do much of the heavy lifting here, again. Her Trinity impression against Caleb was truly impressive, both for its acrobatic excellence and its tactical brilliance. Buffy could not match Caleb blow for blow - which makes one wonder whatever happened to Olaf’s hammer - so she altered her strategy to achieve her goals. She could not have done this with the girls in tow, and, while she was still a part of the army, none would have let her attempt this on her own.
Faith’s role is actually the more complicated of the two. Her job is to organize and resurrect the slayerette army, and she did so in short order. That brief bout with parliamentary procedure served as the release valve for the assembled to shake of the yoke of Buffy’s oppressive regime, but it also quickly proved the need for Faith’s to begin. In reality, the majority of the people in that house did not want to share in the decision making - with the exception of Kennedy, of course - they just wanted to have confidence that the one making the decisions had their best interests at heart.
Buffy had already sacrificed the lives of these girls. She admitted as much tonight. These girls were not lives to be saved, but a means to save the rest of the world. The calculations, while cold, were not incorrect. These girls are the casualties that will spare the rest of humanity, but it was wrong to treat them that way. It was even more wrong to not try to fight that inevitability, if only to keep the troops on Buffy’s side.
Faith assumed control, and will rule with an iron first, but she also has the confidence of those who matter most - Xander, Wood, Willow, and Giles. She maintains that confidence by including them in the process, by listening to their input. She makes the final decision, but the people whose lives are on the line feel that they are very much a part of it.
Their plans - to capture a bringer and to raid the armory - were arrived at through sound decisions. That the plans ultimately led them into a deadly trap should not diminish Faith’s accomplishment here. With the information and tactics available to them, they arrived at a carefully constructed strategy. No one thinking logically would have done different.
There is proof too in their collective abilities as a fighting force. The abduction of the bringer was masterfully orchestrated and the girls involved in the attack were an effective fighting force, rapidly coming into their own under Faith’s leadership. The assault on the armory was also technically excellent. They met their opponents head on and beat them. The girls fought well and there were no casualties. That the armory was rigged to blow only points to the tactical advantage TFE enjoys (of course, TFE knew they had a bringer, and, of course, she knew what information it spilled), not their deficiencies as a group.
The outcomes of their respective forays against TFE were vastly different, and the power structure will be changed once again, if only because Faith looks pretty banged up. Still, don’t be shocked when Buffy is neither welcomed back into the fold nor eager to return. Buffy’s role in all this is still to go it alone, with the possible exception of Spike, and Faith’s destiny is to be the sole Slayer when this is done.
There is a reason why Faith the Vampire Slayer was in the works. Spike’s role is still the wild card, because Buffy is not alone. He clearly stands with her, and his perspective on last week’s coup is a valid one. But it is his perspective. He is the only one she has not shut out, and he is the only one who isn’t being pushed around like a pawn.
That distinction is Buffy’s doing, after all. I suspect that Spike’s love for Buffy is going to make all the difference in the world. Whatever was in store as Buffy’s final act may not be hers after all. Spike would die for Buffy to live, and, given the chance, he will take it. The question is, can we live without Spike? Would Joss choose that for us? (cont. next post)
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:45:02 GMT -5
I say, yes, though it pains me. Spike IS Buffy’s conscious, he is her heart, and he is, irony and all, her soul now. Buffy was done. She quit, for the second time I might add. Spike brought her back. He gave her purpose. He gives her a reason to fight.
Ultimately, the problem with Buffy is not just that she is disconnected from her friends and charges, but that she never reconnected with herself. Buffy never really got over dying the second time, never let got of heaven. She claimed tonight that she holds herself apart because she is the chosen one, but she never began to stand apart - not really - until she killed herself for Dawn.
Mentally, her sacrifice for Dawn was the last one she was capable of making. She had to make that choice completely to do what she did that night, and you don’t undo a decision like that.
Buffy is, for all intents, already dead, if only to herself. Her being alive is a technicality only, like Spike or Angel. Both of them freely discuss that they are dead, all important evidence to the contrary. Buffy just doesn’t say it out loud.
Spike knows different, though. He looks at her and sees “the one,” and while, on a certain level, he means “the one for him,” he also means the chosen one. Spike sees The Chosen amongst the chosen, and he’s right about it.
He’s right about her.
In every way, he knows her better than she knows herself. He sees her potential in ways she can’t see. Or couldn’t.
For all those who balk at Spuffy, who feel betrayed for Angel – Spike does what Angel never did, never could, and never tried. Spike makes her stronger. Spike gives her faith. Spike gives her a reason to win.
When Buffy saves the world, and she will, one of them will be dead. I’ll bet my life on it. But it’ll be the love they show each other in the end that will save all of our lives.
In the end, Spike’s connection to Buffy, and her final acceptance of him, will be the final link she needs to the rest of us to do what must be done.
In the end, Buffy will fight alone, but wanted, needed. Connected.
But only in the end.
The Other Side of Tuesday...when did Dawn become Ms. Ancient Language 2003?
Happy to see the Mayor. He also raises an interesting clue (one brought up by you last week, and one I too quickly dismissed): TFE as the Mayor claimed that he was still the Richard Wilkins III, that his memories and personality were still very much in tact. And that, again, raises the question, why does TFE appear as Buffy so often?
The big Sex-Off was unnecessary, and, in a way uncomfortable. I get Wood and Faith, particularly in light of the planned Faith spin-off, but Kennedy and Willow feels forced and, ahem, creepy. Isn’t Kennedy, like 17? If Xander tried to get with Amanda, the police would get involved. I also think Tara is standing around somewhere disappointed. Not that Willow moved on, she would eventually want that, but that Willow would be attracted to a vapid muggle hothead.
Is anyone else as concerned about Giles' rapid decapitation of the Bringer when it was spilling information so freely? I say red herring, but it bears mentioning.
Don’t you wish Buffy always fought Matrix style?
A number of you have asked me where I’m going to end up after our Buffy run comes to an end. First of all, thank you for the inquiry (especially the nice note I got from Chris & Tari Jordan). It is nice to know that many of you not only want to continue our little writing relationship, but also that so many of you would contact me personally. I’m genuinely awed.
That said, as of right now, I’m without gainful regular writing employment immediately following our last bow in a few weeks. I am definitely looking to continue somewhere, and I have been in contact with several opportunities, but I’m not sure what will happen. I’ll certainly take suggestions, since writing for ScoopMe, particularly this column, has been one of the happiest experiences of my life. We’re going to suffer many sad endings in the next few weeks; I, for one, do not want to add to the list.
While I will undoubtedly do this again, I do want to give a little nudge and wink to Kara Vichko, my tireless editor. If you all only understood how difficult I am to work with - at times - you would all send Kara a nice basket of mini-muffins for keeping me in check and not losing her mind. I will make it all more clear in our final week, but Kara has put up with a great deal from me for a very long time, and we owe her more than anyone for keeping this particular column as it is. Thanks Kara.
I also want to give another personal hello and thank you to Sara Henderson. You have been consistent and overwhelming with your generosity, and I only hope you understand how much it has meant to me.
And a brief shout-out to Nicola, just because.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:45:27 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 5/14/2003
This was the set up. The foundation. The last brick before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. There will be no thematic overtone, no lecture, no sermonizing. “End of Days” was what it said it was...the beginning of the end, and all that mattered was setting the stage for the final act. I don’t know about you, but I am as sad as I am excited. It’s actually kind of hard to focus, what with the loominess of the end. This is the last opportunity to guess at “what comes next.” This is the last we get to argue over what everything might mean. This is the last time we don’t have all the answers. But what are questions? What is the weapon? For all of Buffy’s curiosity about m? , our Excalibur of scythes, I’m not sure what it is or where it came from is really all that important. She knows it belongs to her, and Faith, and that, whatever it is, it definitely works. It is a weapon that levels the playing field considerably, and that, for now, is enough. Is it the answer to all of their problems? Of course not, but knowing that is only half of the equation. I think we all know that Angel holds the other half. Will Buffy lead them? Buffy has returned, and, again, the leadership falls to her. But things are different already. Faith and Buffy stand together on this now. Time is up. Planning, strategy, these concerns are behind them. The final battle, whether they go to it, or it to them, is preordained. They will be in the right place when the time comes, and they will be ready to fight because they have no other choice. There are no other options open to them. Fine, but will they be ready? In a short period of time, key members of the slayerettes have logged some serious field experience. In capturing the bringer, they learned victory in battle. In falling into the trap at the armory, they learned bitter defeat and loss. In their mad flight from the trap, they learned the desperation of battle, and kept their wits about them. Through all of it, they saw all sides of battle, and as bad as things got, they still fought, and fought reasonable well. They lived, and, with that, they are battle forged. They now know what they are capable of, and they will trust themselves to keep their nerve when the end comes. And, the others? The remaining girls, the ones that have been sheltered thus far, they will be less prepared, but they will know that their sisters fought and lived. Some will find their strength on the battlefield and some will shrink under the responsibility. Many, perhaps, will die, but they will die so that others may live. That is war. It sucks for them, but there is no other way. What about Dawn? Ahhh, Li’l Bit has certainly come into her own, and just in the nick of time. I understand why Buffy removed her from harm's way, and I understand why Dawn wouldn’t let it happen. Poor Xander had to be put in the middle of all this, but did you really think the two of them wouldn’t be at Buffy’s side for the end? I just hope they survive. On a pure character note, I reiterate that I am saddened by our early (and premature) insistence that Dawn not bear the slayer burden. I think now, we could agree, that she has grown into the role quite nicely, and, whatever happens, she will play a key role in the rebuilding that follows. There will always be a place for her in the annals of our heroes, perhaps more so in that she does what she does while “ordinary” and human. Dawn and Xander share this, their mortality, their powerlessness. They come to the fight unlike all of the others. They have no special advantage, no special power, no special birth right, when all else do. This is a testament to their heart and courage. Who will live? Who will die? Who are we hoping will make it? I don’t know, I don’t know, and we all have our opinions on the matter. Surely, someone important is bound to make the final sacrifice. This is a necessity, simply so that we believe that this apocalypse is as bad as they want us to believe. That means a main character must die, the question remains as to whom. My money is on Anya, for any number of reasons, but, first and foremost, she wrote her own tombstone tonight. Anya and Andrew are comic gems separately, and together I could only pray for their own screwball comedy sitcom. Their ruminations on the nobility of humanity, and the parts they have had to play in the struggle between good and evil – this was brilliant and touching. But also full of foreboding. Both have much to atone for in their lives. Both owe good a bit of themselves to make up for the evil they inflicted on a flawed, noble humanity. Both could well pay that price in blood. What better way for Andrew to achieve final redemption and acceptance? What better way for Anya to prove her love? Either way, I’ll miss them both, if only because we don’t get to watch anymore. That exchange – “You’re the perfect woman”/“I’ve often thought that” - all the way through Anya’s teary-eyed speech, it encapsulated their perfection as comic foils. It pains me how much I miss it already. As for the others, I’m more reluctant to sign their death warrants just yet. Spike would be a prime candidate, for all of the reasons illustrated above, but the rumors of his jump to Angel are too prominent to discount. One would hope he would put his life on the line and make the final sacrifice for Buffy, and I believe he would, but I don’t think anyone really wants to see him gone for good. Willow? Well she’s marrying Wesley, so to speak, and he’s still got that regular gig on The WB, so it’s safe to assume they might want to spend a few weeks together at work over the next few years. Besides, Willow is too much gold in spin-off land to kill her off completely. A couple of wrong moves on Hannigan’s part in the film world, she might be clamoring for a return to TV, and Willow the Wicca has a certain series appeal.
Xander? This a bit more possible, but let’s not think on it too hard. Xander ain’t getting his own show, so he’s expendable, but for the audience, he might not be. Xander is the human one, the one we most connect with in a personal way, and his loss would be the most painful. I say no chance.
Giles? His BBC show, Ripper, should take care of that possibility, though not completely. I will say that the rift seems to have been healed, at least under the strain of the immediate circumstances. Only time will tell if it lasts.
Faith? Jealous, redemptive, comprehending Faith. Her recognition that Buffy has been more alone because of her connection to her friends is the final band aid on the relationship. These two are ready to stand together in the end. These two are ready to trust each other with their respective lives.
Will Spike succumb to jealousy? I don’t think so. It must have been hard watching Buffy kiss Angel. It must have killed him, and to have TFE whispering in his ear through it all must have been an awful temptation to fold beneath the pain of it all. But he won’t. He’s too true in his love, too sure of his role to play. His life is Buffy’s, and hers alone. It no longer belongs to him to devote to another, and that is enough for me.
Buffy didn’t exactly tell him, tonight, but she gave him enough. She gave him hope that, someday, if they live, their lives might be tagged with the “happily ever after” we all dream about after watching Meg Ryan movies.
How will we carry on without them? Whatever happens. Whoever lives. Whoever dies. We lose them anyway.
It hurts. It hurts a lot, and it hurts already. I can’t watch now, without it being connected to this inevitable ending, this final bow. Every moment of beautiful joy extracted from clever, intelligent, hysterical, awesome, captivating writing wrecks me as it lifts me up.
Every line pricks, because I smile or cheer, and then remember that it is the last time that Anya and Andrew will ever get to wheelchair fight. It is the last time that Buffy and Faith reach across the void at each other. It is the last time that Willow doubts her magic, or Giles holds the family together.
Every thing is the last thing, and knowing it is coming makes me incapable of seeing just the moment.
It’s because we love them. We will lose them, and we will mourn them, and, in a way, that preemptive grief is all we have. Because when it ends, next week, there will be nothing left to hold on to. Nothing rational. It will just be gone, and each and everyone of us will clutch the empty spaces where our hearts used to be, and we will feel silly for mourning something so seemingly trivial and small as it were actually family.
It is almost easier to say goodbye now, but it really isn’t goodbye, as long as we know there is one tale left. We still have one week left to rationalize that these people aren’t really real. They aren’t really with us.
But we’re just fooling ourselves, or at least I am. They are real, if only because they are the better natures we hope for in ourselves. Through thick and thin, these people have laid it all out on the line for each other because of friendship and loyalty over crisis that we could never hope to overcome. We all want friends like these.
We all want to be like them ourselves, and not because they have powers and gifts and a calling.
Anya summed up our allegiance to them best:
And, yet, here’s the thing, when it’s something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they’re lame morons for fighting, but they do. They never... they never quit. And so I guess, I’ll keep fighting too.
Amen. Go. Go be heroes. One last time.
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:47:39 GMT -5
by Hunter Maxin 5/21/2003
Listen.
There are some things I am not going to do.
I will not be talking about the story, not really. I’m not going to mention how forced the Angel part was. How everything moved so fast in the beginning, and how scenes were taken for granted.
I won’t mention that the poignant moment between the original four before the big battle was just a little too underwhelming.
I don’t need to say that Wood and Faith’s verbal sparring in the basement was hysterical, or that Faith is the sexiest thing to walk this earth when she talks like that.
I have no desire to talk of Caleb, or his death. He was a great character, and I wish we knew him longer, but that is done with now.
I don’t need to know why the slayers could fight the uber-vamps with swords and stakes when Buffy had trouble with one earlier on. I won’t question Anya’s ability to kill two in three seconds.
I don’t even care if it was well done (some of it was beyond superb, and some of it was shallow and off key.)
None of it matters. The how is behind us. The what is all we have.
That and the what’s next?
How, really, even to talk about this. It’s just too big, too final. The title card came up, and my mind just couldn’t not say what’s next? I had too many questions, questions I wanted answered in the good way.
In the future.
Next year, even.
They’re good questions too?
Where do they go? Cleveland? Giles’ estate in England to rest up and get organized?
Who goes with them? Willow, Giles, Faith, Xander, sure. Andrew would go. What else is he going to do? The new slayers, most definitely. Wood, too. Maybe Dawn? But Buffy? Does she just retire? Move to Kansas, get married, and have babies? Paris to write a book?
Because, as dead as Spike appears to be - I patently refuse to accept its finality, my mind won’t allow it - and as dead as Anya is, this simply isn’t over. This story has no end, not when there is still evil and people brave enough in this world to fight it.
The Slayer tale does go on. It has too. Not everyone there could walk away. Not everyone there wants to.
Sunnydale is gone, and Buffy might ride off into the sunset, but this story must live on.
The question is how, and whether we’d be willing to accept it. Surely, the tales exist on our mind, and there will be books. Countless books. Some will read, and most will not, and some of the stories might even be good.
There’s Angel, of course, and we are thankful. But Angel, as good as it is (recently, it’s often been better), and as much as we love it, it still isn’t the same. The tone, the characters, they aren’t Buffy’s.
And, we’ll hold out hope for a movie.
There will always be talk of a movie.
I want to say I’m sad. I want to say I’m destroyed, but I’m not, not yet. I will be. In a few days or weeks, or, perhaps when the new fall season begins without it, it’s all going to sink in, and the weight of it will crush me.
But now, I’m just in shock. I’m in shock, and I apologize, because, to an extent, I’m rambling. I’m running on with this what’s next? in my brain, because it’s all my brain will allow.
It’s all I’ve got.
The problem, I think, is that I can’t look at it like an episode. I can’t see it in terms of one hour. The stories that ended tonight didn’t being today, or even this year. It is the culmination of an entire lifetime, in a way, nearly a decade of stories, and it came to a halt all at once.
To attempt to separate the things that happened tonight from the rest of everything is faulty. It doesn’t work. We get to talk about it all again next week with the wrap up, but that doesn’t help us now.
But I’ll pick a place to start. What choice do I have?
Spike. We got it all with Spike. Buffy tells him she loves him. Spike tells her to get bent. Spike becomes the champion through which humanity is saved, and Spike, by all accounts, burned up and turned to dust. These are just the facts, people.
Try taking them one at a time, it won’t help. Spike is dead. Spike is dead? Spike is dead. It doesn’t even sound right. It’s like I’m speaking another language. How can I discuss this rationally? What am I supposed to say to you that you aren’t thinking - out loud, probably, to the consternation of your friends and family - by yourself at home?
Buffy loves Spike? And he says No!?! He might be right to. She may have just been saying it. But I don’t know that! I want to know! Somebody ask her. Did she mean it?
Seriously, this has to happen.
The Slayers. Right now, around the world, little girls are waking up with superpowers. Forget the fact that foreign governments probably need to be alerted, but think on the size of this. How many are there? Are they going to round them up? Are they even going to explain to them what’s going on? What are they going to do?
Doesn’t this become an X-Men Mutant Registration Act sized problem?
Am I the only one who thinks this way?
The What’s Next? part of my brain is most perplexed by these questions. My mind assumes that Giles goes back to England and restarts the Watcher’s Council out of his living room.
Willow and Xander will come and be a large part of the rebuilding, organization, and training of the new body.
Faith will be the titular Slayer, or, at least, head school girl. The other slayers who fought at the Battle of Sunnydale would also go and begin their formal training.
In my opinion, the Council should be organized more along the lines of a private school, some sort of cross between Eton, Hogwarts, and The Xavier School for The Gifted. Watchers would be more like teachers. Older slayers would eventually grow into leadership roles. Formal military and special operations branches of the Council will eventually be formed and staffed entirely by mature slayers.
The status of the Council will elevate in the state of world affairs. It will take on stature not entirely unlike the Vatican. Certain government leaders will have Giles’ phone number on speed dial. Some governments will contemplate the Council’s right to exist.
Diplomacy will be an issue.
But now we are quite ahead of ourselves.
Wood and Andrew would also go to England, of course. Perhaps Dawn, as well, if Buffy allowed it. Buffy might go for a little while, to help them get on their feet, and to take a nice vacation in the English countryside. In time, she would go off on her own and see the world, maybe even on the new Council’s dime. Occasionally, she will do Slayeresque good deeds when she stumbles upon trouble in far flung places like Paris and Prague.
The new girls would be found, and trained. Willow would formalize a relationship with the Coven, and might even open up a parallel school for young witches. She and Kennedy will eventually be married by a famous lesbian celebrity in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in the English Countryside. Millions of Kennedy haters will be disgusted.
The people of Sunnydale will be really pissed off, and return to whatever state they came from prior to moving to California. Their family members will tell them “I told you so.” The news programs in Los Angeles will make no mention of any of this at any time.
Wesley will be offered a position of some honor at the Council and turn it down. He will occasionally assist in times of darkest need, and will take on a legendary status amongst the girls at school. Comparisons to Harrison Ford and James Bond will be made.
Spike will inevitably be resurrected to join Angel and perpetually torment Buffy’s heart in the book series. (I told you, my mind refuses to accept his death.) We will never be satisfied. (cont. next post)
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:47:51 GMT -5
When they were ready, Faith would return to Cleveland, with the help of some of the girls, where she will endeavor to close the hellmouth there.
And The First Evil will rise again.
That’s what my brain tells me. That’s what my mind will allow. Anything more open ended than that gives me a headache.
Still, there are other things to discuss.
Anya. I knew it was coming. I began bracing for it with three weeks left, but still it hurt to watch. I suppose Joss got us by making it so sudden, so violent. I never guessed she wouldn’t have a final line, a parting quip about how, of course, being human didn’t pan out. That Xander never got to say good-bye, that he didn’t even see her go, that her final moments be with Andrew, with her fighting with these “lame morons” until the end...these are the perfect addendum to her story.
I was proud of Anya more than anything else. It’s how she always made me feel as she struggled to fit in, not because she wanted to belong, but because doing the right thing felt the most right to her. I’m stealing this from Shatner, but it was her lack of humanity - at the start - that ultimately made her the most human.
For her actions.
Her choices.
Anya is definitely gone. She is one we won’t be seeing, and no one will sully her memory. She is one we can mourn, for real, and forever, because even in our dreams, she won’t be doing anything new.
I feel for Xander, for his life that could have been. But I also know that, as much as he will miss her, he understood her sacrifice for what it was. She died to save him, all of them, and that was the perfect last grace for her.
Andrew. All I’ll say is that I’m thrilled he got his I Can Do That moment. He truly doesn’t understand why his life was spared, and that makes him an interesting person to watch in the future. What he does next would make us all proud, and, at the very end, he earned it with us. In a strange way, he slides right into the spot in our hearts than opened when Anya died. He could never hope to replace her, but he is the ideal candidate to succeed her (I know, two Trek nods in one night is a stretch. Cut me some slack, these are trying times.)
Dawn. Her kicking Buffy in the shin was priceless, but I feel silly talking about it. What a woman she will become? What a force she already is? We couldn’t have been any more wrong about her, and we deserve punishment for chasing Joss away from DtVS. When she referred to herself as “Junior Watcher” a light went on in my heart that warms me still. With two little words, she mapped out her entire future in my head, and these stories will bring me comfort when I need them.
Willow, Xander, and Giles. It is funny how little they need our attention here. Other than Xander’s loss of Anya, in a strange way, their lives are little changed. It just moves. These past seven years, their lives have slowly been overtaken by the mission. That is what they know. It is all life has prepared them for, and they will soldier on. As big as this apocalypse was - and, make no mistake, it was - it also brings with it an air of familiarity to them. This is what they do. This is what they will always do.
Buffy. Next week we will discuss our girl. Next week we will marvel in how far she’s come. How much she’s done. She deserves whatever break she has coming, whether it be retirement or vacation. Buffy has earned the right to fade away, if she desires, and her story truly has come to an appropriate end.
What has it all meant? What she really wants? Who she really wants? These are private questions for her now, and, as much as the ‘shippers in us want to know, we also don’t need to know. Not with the same urgency. One senses that she now has the opportunity to find her heart like any normal girl in her twenties. Nothing would surprise me now, least of all her falling madly in love with an architect in Connecticut who never heard of a slayer.
She probably wouldn’t even tell him.
She wouldn’t need to.
The life Buffy has led, the mistakes she has made, these are all behind her. The road stretches out in front of her and nothing has been decided for her. There is nothing to tie her to her past. No roots.
Even Dawn binds her to nothing. Dawn has a family and a life without Buffy. They are already too grown to need each other that way. Their lives were never normal enough to demand such conventions anyway. Dawn moving to England while Buffy backpacks around the world suits them both better, anyway.
Buffy’s died twice. It’s high time she finally lived.
And so it ends. I’ve gone on too long, and I could go on all night.
I wish I could sit around a campfire with all of you and just tell stories.
Do you remember when....?
We could warm ourselves by the fire and tell tales of heroes and what they have meant to our lives. We could pass them around under the stars and make them legend for our children’s children.
And they would be our stories. These were our lives too, imperiled and saved in front of our eyes every Tuesday stretching back as far as we can remember. We were different people when this story began, shadows of who we now are, and this huge part of our history that we grew up with is apparently no more.
What else is there to say?
What else can we do?
What’s done is done, and we are left with our memories.
So, one last time, raise your glass with me...
To Buffy...
May you always find peace.
I’ll see you all next week at the Wake.
One last thing... there is one more thing I would like to leave you with, one final piece of me before we go. I don’t really know how big of a deal it is, but it is important to me.
My name is not Hunter Maxin.
I debated for a long time about whether I would share this with you, and I very nearly decided against this, but our time together, and the relationship we have made this a necessity. The bottom line is that you all have meant so much to me that to leave you with anything but the whole truth seemed unfair.
The story is a simple one. When Jen Sonstein retired, everyone wanted to review BtVS. Who could blame them. The editors held an open audition and received scores of submissions. Many were from ScoopMe writers, though most came from outside the existing staff, and, from what I’m told, a great deal of them were excellent. At this time, I had been gone from ScoopMe for about a year after three years of writing everything from Charmed and Enterprise to ScoopMe’s first (and only completed) original serial novel, The Red Door.
Like everyone else, the opportunity to write for Buffy the Vampire Slayer was too attractive to pass up, and, I too submitted a series of reviews. Thankfully, I got the job after a tight competition that dragged on for weeks, but there was a concern. A number of the finalists were already ScoopMe writers and no one, least of all me, wanted there to be bad blood or cries of favoritism amongst the existing staff. We all felt it would be better if the gig went to an outsider to soothe office tensions, and Hunter Maxin was born.
My real name is Matthew Heitzer, and this past year has been one of the most enjoyable and satisfying experiences in my life. What we have here, and what we’ve done together, have become a huge part of who I am. I thank you for that. I cannot express enough what all of this has meant to me.
I’ll still be here next week, for our final wrap up, our last goodbye, and I look forward to seeing you all then.
Until that day...
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Post by Dalton on Feb 27, 2004 23:51:51 GMT -5
It's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Wake!: Graduation Day
by Matthew R. Heitzer 5/28/2003
I finally cried today.
I was walking down the street, listening to my iPod, and "Sacrifice" from The Gift came on. I didn’t even know it was in there. It was raining. It was night. The streets were empty. It was, dare I say, cinematic.
"Sacrifice" was always a moving piece of music, a modern day Barber’s Adagio, but smaller and more poignant for all it’s small screen intimacy. I don’t listen to it much, mostly because I can watch it whenever I want, and I forgot what it could do to me. But here it was, washing over my little scene, and I let the pensive notes turn the street into something else.
For a moment, they were all there with me. I imagined, despite myself, that I was with them. Not because I harbor ludicrous fantasies of entering their world, that was never me, but because they were part of mine.
Every Tuesday, the funny, the sad, the dramatic, the irrational, it all came to me, to all of us, and we lived it as our own. In our own way, we were all alone when it started, and this little piece of heaven brought us together.
I won’t question it anymore. It’s over, and we’ve all done what we’ve done. We all felt what we felt, and we keep on feeling what we feel.
Back then, on the street in The Gift, Buffy’s friends gathered around her lifeless body. Their center had fallen, and they were all just. so empty. It was so final. So wrong. Buffy was gone and she wasn’t coming back. It was such a powerful moment, when it happened, but we knew it wasn’t over. We knew Willow would do something. Joss had promised us.
But not this time.
This time, Buffy really is gone. She really isn’t coming back.
When it hit me, really hit me, the tears came, and I finally understood why.
It was never just a show.
Not to us.
Lock us up. Make us well. Do whatever you think is necessary, but let us grieve. Because, it isn’t fair. It didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to end. We weren’t ready, Joss. Why were you?
In the beginning, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was just a silly irreverent irrelevant movie that bore no sign that it would spawn an emotional phenomenon that would last seven glorious years. It should have ended there, and, if it had, there was no one in the world, not even Joss Whedon, who would have noticed.
When BtVS debuted on a silly irreverent irrelevant network, we probably shouldn’t have been there. I still don’t even know why I was watching. I just was. I remember the night clearly, for no earthly reason. I can recall sitting on my couch in Atlanta flipping channels after dinner, desperate to ignore my Law School homework, and there was Nerf Herder singing over a setting sun.
I didn’t recognize anyone, save the mousy red head, and I wasn’t really sure about the blonde in the lead or the fabricated teenage joviality. I didn’t speak Buffy yet, and many of the speech patterns seemed forced and other-worldy. But I saw something in that Xander, recognized something personal in his version of high school, so I stayed.
I came back the following week, and the week after that.
It wasn’t very good, at first, but you could sense the potential. There was something about each of them - Sarah, Anthony, Nicholas, and Allyson - that told you they would be worth growing with. By Prophecy Girl, I was officially hooked. It was still raw, but I saw in SMG the beginnings of something special.
Buffy: So that’s it, huh? I remember the drill. One slayer dies the next one’s called. I wonder who she is. Will you train her, or will they send someone else.?
Giles: Buffy, I...
Buffy: Did it say how he’s gonna kill me. Do you think it’ll hurt? Don’t touch me. Were you even gonna tell me?....
Giles: I was hoping I wouldn’t have to, that there was some way around it.
Buffy: I’ve got a way around it, I quit.
Angel: It’s not that simple.
Buffy: I’m making it that simple. I quit, I resign, I’m fired. You can find someone else to stop the master from taking over.
Giles: I’m not sure that anyone else can. All the signs indicate...
Buffy: The signs? Read me the signs! Tell me my fortune! You’re so useful sitting here with all of your books! You’re really a lot of help.
Giles: No , I don’t suppose I am.
Angel: I know this is hard.
Buffy: What do you know about this? You’re never gonna die.
Angel: You think I want anything to happen to you, huh? Do you think I could stand it. We just have to figure out a way...
Buffy: I already did. I quit, remember? Pay attention!
Giles: Buffy, if the master rises...
Buffy: I don’t care! I don’t care. Giles, I’m sixteen years old, I don’t wanna die.
That was it. That was the moment when Buffy stopped being just a show and started becoming something more. I suspect many of us were turned at this very same moment. (cont. next post)
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