"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:40872624-dfc9-472e-95e3-2d8d389de966@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Mar 13, 5:44 pm, "One Bit Shy" <O...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
>>
messagenews:56612ddd-a1d5-4d08-8e97-65c90acae3fe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> So I do like to think that something was staying Buffy's hand as she
>> battled
>> Anya. Perhaps Xander's words - as un-artful as they were - prodded
>> Buffy's
>> heart just enough. The tightrope balancing of attitudes certainly fits
>> with
>> the seasonal themes. Also, the repeat of the Becoming scenario of
>> swordfight while Willow seeks a solution off-stage, differs in the very
>> im****tant respect that this time Willow intercedes in time. A sequence
>> that
>> also pre-sages the series finale of working the critical magic
off-stage
>> while the slayer army tries to survive.
>
> It doesn't have to be an either/or. It can be a tightrope. It
> follows from the argument, in which Buffy firmly believes that killing
> Anya is the right thing to do, arguing passionately for it, but it
> doesn't stop her from almost begging Xander to come up with a better
> plan. Buffy's silence and mannerisms during the confrontation with
> Anya emphasize how unpleasant a duty this is for her, more so than any
> other time in the series (if we refer only to her feelings *before*
> doing a job, it hits me harder than "Becoming"). For better and for
> worse ("and" because that's not an either/or, um, either), she's
> comfortably taken on the mantle of the Slayer who's the only one who
> faces what no one else should have to.
Oh, you're certainly right about it being both. It's just that Buffy's I
am
the law speech is so persuasive (which, of course, Xander will take in the
worst way down the road) and Xander's argument is so thin and self serving
(but passionate and of a good heart too), that it can be missed how much
Buffy is pu****ng the edges of her own established principles. She's
acting
like Buffy in some ways, but not in others. Or to put it another way,
it's
a variation of the Slayer trap with the demands of her calling constantly
pressing to take away the essence of her self.
I think it's great stuff. The return to the original source of tension in
the series, imagined in a surprisingly fresh way, is the best feature of
the
season for me. Even if there might be a couple stumbles along the way, it
still pulls it off beautifully in the end.
>> What I really dislike about it - even more than your quite accurate
>> observation - is the way bringing Anya into the Summer's house (and in
>> close
>> contact with Xander) undermines the beautiful conclusion of Selfless
>> where
>> she finally determines to find her true self, and finally forgives
>> Xander,
>> but in a final separation sort of way. This episode tries to explain
it
>> away with words, but the kind of words that sound an awful lot like
>> writers
>> scrambling to change their minds.
>
> Maybe they figured they'd used up their quota of "Anya apart from the
> group" time. But still, if ever a series was crying out for a major
> character to take a few weeks off (well, ATS S3 was too, but for very
> different reasons)...
Precisely. I had been idly thinking that they maybe they should have
distanced her for a while like they did with Tara in S6.
>> I especially love the final conversation between Buffy and Spike. (I
>> don't
>> know why you consider the explanation of Spike plagued with inflicted
>> visions as a let-down.) I love how Spike finally comprehending that
his
>> madness is inflicted moves from despair to hope, stops thinking that he
>> doesn't deserve help and starts asking for it. And I love how the
>> realization of what is being done to Spike further clarifies the
>> possibilities within Spike to Buffy, so that she acts with her heart
and
>> says yes to Spike's pleas.
>>
>> Spike: Will you... Help me. Can you help me?
>> Buffy: I'll help you.
>>
>> At this moment that's a commitment, I believe. In that sense, as
>> powerful
>> and commanding to Buffy as her commitment to Joyce to protect Dawn in
S5.
>
> [Shrug.] She's been helping him already this year and will again. I
> guess my mind prefers to channel its "momentous moment" energy into "I
> believe in you" from the next episode instead.
I get that - and it has the virtue of being easier to understand. But
this
happens first, and at least tries to get at how Buffy decides. Next time
it's more to get it across to Spike so that he has the strength to
persevere. Buffy had already decided.
Having said that, the duplication between the episodes is one of the
things
I find annoying. As I said before, I really wish they had found a way to
compress this run by one or even two episodes. It's one of the messier
periods of the season for me.
>> Once Spike learns what's happening, it ceases to have any power over
him.
>> Again suggesting that it's not something implanted from outside, but
>> rather
>> something natural to himself. That actually makes Spike one of the
>> better
>> examples of how The First is really the evil within oneself.
>
> That works nicely, thanks. The characters largely treat it as if it
> were a literally implanted device, so the incomplete analogy kinda
> dominated my thinking about it.
LMPTM chooses not to directly explain - it just shows the sequence of
events
ending up with Spike cured. So you have to work it out. It took me a
while
to get there, but I think it's pretty solidly demonstrated - except for
why
the chip doesn't work. The characters treat it as an implant because they
don't know better. It's how it looks to them. (Probably reinforced by
already thinking of Spike as controlled by an implant.) And it's
certainly
true that The First used its visions to turn the association into a useful
psychosis. That part's a lot like what it did with Angel. There just
wasn't a clever trigger that time.
Which reminds me again how much Spike is paralleling Angel's story - and
how
S7 periodically parallels S3. (Though it draws on other seasons too.)
OBS
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