> "mariposas rand mair fheal" <mair_fh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote :
> >> The First as an archvillain is still full of, er, potential. It has
> >> the chance to be truly worse and more dangerous than Glory, or any of
> >> the other apocalyptic monsters because it comes from within the main
> >> characters themselves and is quite literally generated by them. Alas,
> >> as the season progressed, this idea proved too hard to sustain, and
> >> The First became a Big Baddy in the Basement, with the usual army of
> >> orcs and a taste for cross-dressing.
>
> > the idea is the only real power the devil has
> > is the power you give it
>
> > Jareth: *Everything*! Everything that you wanted I have done. You
asked
> > that the
> > child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening.
I
> > have
> > reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done
it
> > all for
> > *you*! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me. Isn't
> > that
> > generous?
>
> > buffy cant destroy it
> > but once she rejects it and tells it get out of her face
> > it has no power over her
>
> > death evil fear etc are always going to be here
> > but whether they control you or not is your choice
OBS:
> The First's power also manifests as an army of surrogates threatening to
> force their will upon Buffy and her army. And with Caleb, we also see
the
> First bestowing power upon somebody. (The first ubervamp probably got
the
> same kind of power boost too.)
You've hit on the reason why I so dislike Caleb and to some degree the
Ubervamp(s). The season was on track with the First: it was a
different kind of evil, the kind that really might win. It was a
culmination of all the lessons learned about evil-from-within in S6,
plus the "it's about [Godlike] power" of S5. IT made enormous sense
for the way the story was going to end, and should end: with Good-from-
within triumphing *by* rejecting the hoarding of power, and endorsing
its redistribution. That, together with the combining of different
kinds of power that had always been the hallmark of the Scoobies. And
indeed, that's how the season and the story ended, and I am satisfied
by that.
It's my sense that Caleb and the Ubers were created mainly because the
individual episodes needed fight scenes, especially the kind that
would scare teenage girls: involving rampant hulking figures of
steroidized, testosterone-driven masculinity. Otherwise the season
would have gotten very confusing, with massive fight scenes between,
say, Xander and A Thing that Looks Like Joyce, or Dawn and A Thing
that Looks Like a Cool Boyfriend, etc. Not to mention that it would
have gotten very talky. The arc promised by Buffy's conversation with
Holden would have been an arc of battles of wits and wiles: evil
subverting good, and good countersubverting evil.
Personally, I might have liked a season that looked a little more like
that--and it would have been given Giles (and in some ways Willow,
Xander, and Spike) better things to do. Despite Giles's lifelong
message, everyone spends a lot of time in S7 doubting that good can
beat evil just by thinking. (Willow: "You know Buffy? Nice girl, not
that bright?" Spike: "I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly flow in
the direction of my brain.") But that's what Buffy does. She ignores
the physical challenges of the Ubers and Caleb, the haunts and
ghosties, and thinks the problem through. This is exemplified by the
way she finds the Scythe: by challenging Caleb to a duel in which
neither of them ever lands a blow. As soon as she learns to fight by
not being hit, Caleb can't win.
One of the biggest pleasures for me in S7 is watching Buffy think
through the core problem and discover the solution without staking or
slicing or punching people. More and more she leaves that to the
others, Wood and Spike especially, while she puzzles it out.
It strikes me that she learns how to puzzle out the problem from
Holden. He does what a good shrink does: teaches her to look at her
inner problems dispassionately, from all angles, and work through
them. The big inner problem for Buffy isn't the one Holden identifies
of feeling both superior and inferior; instead it's the problem of
feeling alone. ("Being the Slayer made me different, but it's my fault
I stayed that way. People are always trying to connect to me, and I
just slip away," she says later to Spike.)
Slipping away is how she defeats Caleb. *Not* slipping away, but
joining, is how she empowers the Potentials. I think she first sees
the problem in her conversation with Holden, and begins that thinking
process with him:
HOLDEN Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all-
consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a firey oblivion. How
'bout you?
BUFFY Not so much connected. [...]
HOLDEN Oh. So, when you said not connected, that was kind of a telling
statement, wasn't it?
BUFFY Ah, Psych 101 alert.
HOLDEN Well, I'm just saying.
BUFFY Yeah, what I really need is emotional therapy from the evil
dead.
HOLDEN Hey, it was your phrase.
BUFFY I'm connected. I'm connected to a lot of people, OK.
HOLDEN No. No, I hear ya.
BUFFY I really am.
And then, in "Touched":
BUFFY I cut myself off from them, all of them. [snip] I've always cut
myself off, I've always... being the Slayer made me different but it's
my fault I stayed that way. People are always trying to connect to me
but I just slip away. You should know.
SPIKE I seem to recall a certain amount of connecting.
BUFFY Oh, please. We were never close. You just wanted me because I
was unattainable.
SPIKE You think that's all that was? [snip] Something pissed me off
and I just... unattainable! That's it.
BUFFY Fine. I'm attainable. I'm an attain-athon. Can I please just
go to sleep?
First Holden, then Spike. Two conversations that, when combined, lead
to the solution.
~Mal
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