"Apteryx" <apteryx@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:g0ovrd$3jm$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
news:f6dce363-bd58-4ec1-87c2-e67834452266@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I see Chosen as a concept episode where the writing and directing team
> were left to try and demonstrate the concept (of power sharing) but in
the
> event couldn't pull it off. For a start, Buffy doesn't really share her
> power (except in the sense of filesharing). She duplicates her power,
> giving nothing up herself, and in the process becomes far more powerful.
> I'll bet the thousands of generations of Slayers who fought and died
> alone, as the "one girl in every generation" are kicking themselves now
> that they didn't think of that.
I don't believe the word "share" or "sharing" is ever used in reference to
this. If it is, it isn't meant as you seem to take it. This is what
Buffy
told the Potentials.
"In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who
died
thousands of years ago made up that rule. ... I say my power should be our
power." This is "shared" (again, the word not actually used) not in the
sense of being divided up, but in the second meaning of the verb to have
in
common - to partake with others alike.
The point of the reference to the Shadow Men is that they withheld the
power
from others - that there is no reason beside their choice that others
couldn't have the same power. It'd be rather a letdown if each Potential
just got a little piece of Buffy's own power, while hers got stripped
away.
Then they'd just be slightly stronger cannon fodder.
More to the point, it's a metaphor for feminist empowerment, which is
partly
about embracing the natural capabilities within yourself (not taken from
others), and partly about access to the tools of power horded by the
patriarchy (Willow is more powerful than all of the Shadow Men). It's
definitely not about taking power away from already empowered women.
I think you're looking for something that's not intended to be there and
wouldn't make sense for the metaphor. All that Buffy gives up is being
alone with that power, and alone in bearing the consequent responsibility.
In that much more limited sense, she does indeed "share" power in the
divvying up sense - starting before the spell. She stops ordering people
around. She seeks and accepts input and individual initiative. She asks
the Potentials to choose embracing their power - as opposed to being
chosen.
(I assume anybody who didn't want to go the final battle could stay home.)
In the final battle it is represented by passing the Scythe to those best
able to use it at any point.
> Worse, even though characters tell us that the First is defeated by the
> combined power of the new Slayers, what we actually see happening is the
> First defeated by the amulet provided by Wolfram & Hart. W&H's motives
for
> this rather substantial own goal for Team Evil are not explored. Was it
> just to get Spike to LA? To stamp out a rival apocalypse? Or are they
> Second Evil, and ambitious?
The depiction of the Slayer army turning the tide is my pick as the
biggest
weakness in the battle scene. It's just not definitive enough to claim
them
as victors on their own. IMO, one shot could have corrected that. Just
pull back one last time to show the cliff, this time showing a slew of
ubervamps being thrown from the cliff left and right, and others fleeing.
Aside from clarifying the degree to which the battle tide has turned, that
would allow greater emphasis on what I think Spike's more im****tant
function
is - to close the Hellmouth. While Buffy is empowering the Potentials,
solving the Slayer trap, and once again holding the forces of Hell at bay,
Spike is on his own path. For he's hellspawn himself - redeemed - finally
feeling the essence of his soul himself. There's a symbolic quality to
the
gates of Hell being shut as one of their own sacrifices himself and sort
of
ascends to a higher state that's the very antithesis of what he once
represented.
On a more in-story level, Spike is also completing his emulation of Buffy,
his role model. Just as Buffy did in The Gift, Spike performs the
ultimate
heroic act by sacrificing himself, thereby closing the ****tal to Hell.
(He
will, of course, also be raised from the dead to live on again - just as
Buffy was. He'll even conclude his Buffyverse career about to face a
seemingly impossible battle against another army from Hell. Though, by
that
point, Buffy as role model may have passed its expiration date.)
One thing that the amulet does is make his death a magical one - thereby
maintaining the series rule against resurrection from natural death. That
may not be essential since he's magical to begin with, but it still plays
better I think to stick with the rule. In keeping with the parallel to
Buffy from S5, the amulet also parallels Dawn somewhat by being a powerful
world changing artifact thrust into their world by mysterious agents from
afar.
That's better than nothing I suppose, but still rather thin threads to
hang
the amulet on. You can't get away from the fact that it's a last second
ultra-powerful doodad that fixes everything. It forcibly creates some of
the connections referred to above more so than is justified by them. So
I'm
kind of iffy on the amulet. But I don't believe it's intent was to so
over-emphasize its part in defeating The First's army. That just came out
wrong.
OBS
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