Excellent analysis of Faith but I do think the mirror angle favours a kind of binary thinking that can lead to some false dichotomies. Which is to say I think Buffy is more complicated. To take a simple example the choice Faith has to make after killing Finch is not just between turning herself into the police and keeping the whole thing secret. Buffy initially suggests that she talk about it to Buffy, to anyone, Faith responds by saying she’s covered it up and she doesn’t care, it never happened. That’s not rational acceptance of a regrettable error but full blown denial. I think also that in the context of the episode the killing is not quite as simple as an unavoidable accident. Bad Girls is all about Faith tempting Buffy to let herself go, give in to the realm of the senses and slay purely for the fun, the rush of it. I think it’s not just because Buffy is a couple of seconds behind Faith that she notices Finch is human just before Faith stakes him. Faith is caught up in the rush, she’s not paying attention. Her initial response
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I think also that in the context of the episode the killing is not quite as simple as an unavoidable accident. Bad Girls is all about Faith tempting Buffy to let herself go, give in to the realm of the senses and slay purely for the fun, the rush of it. I think it’s not just because Buffy is a couple of seconds behind Faith that she notices Finch is human just before Faith stakes him. Faith is caught up in the rush, she’s not paying attention.
The writers also made a deliberate point in Dopplegangland, when Buffy is in the act of staking VampWillow and Willow shouts "Buffy, No!" Buffy is able to stop herself from staking VampWillow
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I totally agree with you about the binary thinking -- and was trying to use the essay to suggest that things are much more complicated than the light/dark imagery might lead us to expect
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I totally agree with you about the binary thinking -- and was trying to use the essay to suggest that things are much more complicated than the light/dark imagery might lead us to expect.
Absolutely, I think you did a wonderful job and wish I had been able to express that better. The human brain she is wired in opposites, I slipped into setting up my own hot/cold dichotomy mid-comment.
Your point about the effect of the Ted incident particularly made me think and it’s also true that Faith’s the type to have an inferiority complex about her inferiority complex. Still I don’t know if any intervention would have stopped her, the pattern was set already in her first episode. If it’s possible to account for Buffy playing Generalissma in S7 by her caring too much about the potentials and reacting by refusing to care at all, I think the same can be said of the Faith running from having witnessed whatever Kakistos did to her Watcher. And she’s so very young in S3 for all her street cool bravado.
For me, Buffy's coldness is the expense of
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Very, very interesting essay. You fulfilled the requirements of the title brilliantly. I really like the way you showed that the dark/light contrast between Buffy and Faith is a false dichotomy right from the start.
However, I do agree with Aycheb that by the end of season 7, Buffy too had had her moment of clarity about herself - and in fact, when she comes back to the house after taking the Scythe and is talking to Faith, it's pretty obvious that all differences between them (specifically Buffy's resentment of Faith, which is rather similar to Angel's resentment of Spike in AtS season 6) has evaporated. Both Slayers can see that there's no need for any sense of competition between them.
Thanks! I just commented on this point in reply to Aycheb. I do agree that Buffy has grown in many ways in season 7. And certainly her relationships with both Faith and Spike are much better. But at the end of BtVS I remain unclear about whether Buffy has really fully acknowledged her own darkness. Does she feel bad about her hand in creating the badness that was season 6 Spuffy? Does she regret trying to kill Faith? Maybe. But also maybe not. Since the series ends, we don't get to see whether Buffy lives with a greater sense of honesty about herself. (And I can't tell yet from the comics). But there is hope for her. Definitely.
Of course, I meant AtS season 5. Sorry about that.
I'm of the opinion that she does realise her culpability for what happened between her and Spike in season 6 and that her actions towards him in season 7 show this, even though she never says it to him openly- so yes, I think she does indeed feel bad about it.
However, since such unspoken feelings rely so much on actors expressing minute nuances of emotion and that's simply not possible in comics, like you I hope for something a little more explicit in season 8. So far, I find Buffy herself more opaque in the comic than she ever was in the show (and that's saying something).
Very interesting essay summing up the basic Buffy/Faith antagonism.
I can't help but remember that Buffy killed the zookeeper (evil but human!) in The Pack and hadn't displayed even the slightest concern about it. And Giles accepted his death as nothing serious. Maybe because there wasn't a body to dispose of - hyenas ate the zookeeper. Which makes the Council's attitude to such incidents even more questionable.
I can't help but remember that Buffy killed the zookeeper
And Gwen Post, and later the knights on horseback. There may well be more examples... In some cases, there are "heat of battle" and "self-defense" justifications that may or may not have been raised.
The larger picture is that the Finch's death was symptomatic of larger problems, rather than just an alarming act on it's own.
In some cases, there are "heat of battle" and "self-defense" justifications that may or may not have been raised.
If we look from a writer's POW, it's just a plot necessity. But if we look from characters' POW, the circumstances point that Council might be more than willing to dismiss such incidents as inevitable glitches in Slayer's job.
In Helpless they let loose a psychotic vampire to achieve their task. So I think it's logical to suggest that it's the antagonism between Buffy and Faith that starts Faith's fall. If she'd go directly to Wesley and tell him everything, he'd turn to the Council and it was quite possible that Travers would use Council's influence to hush it up.
I think it's logical to suggest that it's the antagonism between Buffy and Faith that starts Faith's fall.I don't see that as logical at all. Buffy and Kendra were antagonistic too. Didn't cause either of them to descend into the moral netherworld
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The question of how to exercise slayer power gets raised, not because Faith accidentally killed a human, but because Buffy once intentionally hurt someone she thought was human.
Are you sure? I would think that Buffy would have raised the issue regardless. Buffy seems to have clearly viewed the killing of the deputy mayor in the larger context of Faith's overall behavior. Buffy had been remarking upon Faith's out-of-control style all season long, and not merely because Buffy was previously used to being the "Bad Slayer" herself.
It’s a rather breathtaking claim to make, considering that Buffy tried to kill Faith, and did succeed in putting her into a coma. I’m not aware of any moment where Buffy admits that at least once in her life, she deliberately tried to kill another human being.She admits this to Xander, even before she does it
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Thanks for all your comments! You are definitely right that Buffy is reacting, at least in part, to a pattern of recklessness that Faith has had on display throughout the season. But we still know that Faith isn't EVIL -- her breakdown in season 4 makes that clear. And it's quite a jump from an accident, even one that occurs because of some recklessness, to the idea that Faith has become a 'killer'. And Buffy invokes the word 'killer' early on, at the end of Bad Girls. That shift in tone is what I'm trying to draw attention to -- and I think Ted is a good place to look for an explanation about where it's coming from
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And Buffy invokes the word 'killer' early on, at the end of Bad Girls. That shift in tone is what I'm trying to draw attention to -- and I think Ted is a good place to look for an explanation about where it's coming from.
It's not merely 'Ted'. Buffy, by Bad Girls has dealt with a number of murderers, both demon and human. And a key signpost is Faith's unwillingness to display contrition or guilt. This is valid, IMO. Faith, in the aftermath, does indeed become a killer - largely because she continues to abdicate responsibility for her actions and judgments.
Buffy is not being moralistic. She is being moral. And even Faith knows that, though she won't acknowledge it.
The viewer knows Faith is conflicted, but Buffy is not privy to Faith's moment in the bathroom. It is unrealistic to expect Buffy to read Faith's mind if Faith isn't going to share.
Buffy's near-killing of Faith is a far more deliberate act than Faith's failure to respond quickly enough to the discovery that the person she was staking was human.When Willow yells "Buffy
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We do disagree about this rather strongly, I'm afraid. I agree with you that Faith needed to take responsibility and that she resisted doing so. If I've given the impression that I think that Faith doesn't have serious issues, even culpable issues, in play here then I haven't been clear. But by invoking the word 'killer' so early on, Buffy closed out some of the space in which Faith might have had room to take that responsibility. And while I point to that as part of the sequence that pushed Faith from someone who was irresponsible in her use of power to someone who misuses that powerful to willfully serve her own end, I think even Buffy was willing to give Faith more room than you seem to want to do here. Buffy, at least, understood that it was an accident. In my mind you fail to make crucial moral distinctions between a faulty sense of judgment about how to exercise power and a willful decision to misuse it. And I disagree with your assertion that Faith's step over into the camp of evil was due to her wish to evade responsibility
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I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the details of your analysis of Buffy's dark side--for instance, I've long wondered if Buffy didn't subconsciously sense that Ted wasn't human--but the overall thrust seems accurate. (I tend to deal with these things in fic more often than in meta--see Shadow Sun and following.)
I've often been interested in the idea of comparing Buffy and Faith more closely with Kendra. Kendra is presented to us as the "light" Slayer against Buffy prior to Faith's appearance--totally in control and always willing to do the Council's bidding. But we eventually learn that the Council is not so pure itself, and looking back from that revelation I sometimes wonder if Kendra is really as good a person as she seems. She certainly does come across very harsh and self-righteous at times, albeit with excuse--"(Angel)'s a vampire. He should die."
Thanks! I watched Ted terribly to try to suss out whether or not we could dismiss Buffy's act as being due to the fact that deep down she knew he was not human. The episode keeps it deliberately ambiguous. Buffy wants Ted to be a demon so she can kill him. This is practically her first reaction. And the wanting to get rid of Ted has everything to do with the fact that he's her mother's new boyfriend. Still, wanting to kill someone and actually doing it are different things, and it's possible she would not have acted on her desire if she didn't know deep down that he's a robot. But I think Buffy's profound sense of guilt after the killing but before the reveal on his non-human status is because she knows that there was a dark impulse behind her having killed him -- and because she exercised that impulse without being sure of whether or not he was human
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I sometimes wonder if Kendra is really as good a person as she seems. She certainly does come across very harsh and self-righteous at times, albeit with excuse--"(Angel)'s a vampire. He should die."
Kendra says the words - but she doesn't act upon them. Regardless of council training, she has an open mind and can be persuaded to change her positions. In many ways, I think that with Kendra it's more a matter of limited experience. Introduce her to a Clem, and I doubt she'd be killing him.
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The writers also made a deliberate point in Dopplegangland, when Buffy is in the act of staking VampWillow and Willow shouts "Buffy, No!" Buffy is able to stop herself from staking VampWillow ( ... )
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Absolutely, I think you did a wonderful job and wish I had been able to express that better. The human brain she is wired in opposites, I slipped into setting up my own hot/cold dichotomy mid-comment.
Your point about the effect of the Ted incident particularly made me think and it’s also true that Faith’s the type to have an inferiority complex about her inferiority complex. Still I don’t know if any intervention would have stopped her, the pattern was set already in her first episode. If it’s possible to account for Buffy playing Generalissma in S7 by her caring too much about the potentials and reacting by refusing to care at all, I think the same can be said of the Faith running from having witnessed whatever Kakistos did to her Watcher. And she’s so very young in S3 for all her street cool bravado.
For me, Buffy's coldness is the expense of ( ... )
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However, I do agree with Aycheb that by the end of season 7, Buffy too had had her moment of clarity about herself - and in fact, when she comes back to the house after taking the Scythe and is talking to Faith, it's pretty obvious that all differences between them (specifically Buffy's resentment of Faith, which is rather similar to Angel's resentment of Spike in AtS season 6) has evaporated. Both Slayers can see that there's no need for any sense of competition between them.
Very good essay. Enjoyed it a lot.
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I'm of the opinion that she does realise her culpability for what happened between her and Spike in season 6 and that her actions towards him in season 7 show this, even though she never says it to him openly- so yes, I think she does indeed feel bad about it.
However, since such unspoken feelings rely so much on actors expressing minute nuances of emotion and that's simply not possible in comics, like you I hope for something a little more explicit in season 8. So far, I find Buffy herself more opaque in the comic than she ever was in the show (and that's saying something).
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I can't help but remember that Buffy killed the zookeeper (evil but human!) in The Pack and hadn't displayed even the slightest concern about it. And Giles accepted his death as nothing serious. Maybe because there wasn't a body to dispose of - hyenas ate the zookeeper. Which makes the Council's attitude to such incidents even more questionable.
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And Gwen Post, and later the knights on horseback. There may well be more examples... In some cases, there are "heat of battle" and "self-defense" justifications that may or may not have been raised.
The larger picture is that the Finch's death was symptomatic of larger problems, rather than just an alarming act on it's own.
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If we look from a writer's POW, it's just a plot necessity. But if we look from characters' POW, the circumstances point that Council might be more than willing to dismiss such incidents as inevitable glitches in Slayer's job.
In Helpless they let loose a psychotic vampire to achieve their task. So I think it's logical to suggest that it's the antagonism between Buffy and Faith that starts Faith's fall. If she'd go directly to Wesley and tell him everything, he'd turn to the Council and it was quite possible that Travers would use Council's influence to hush it up.
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I think it's logical to suggest that it's the antagonism between Buffy and Faith that starts Faith's fall.I don't see that as logical at all. Buffy and Kendra were antagonistic too. Didn't cause either of them to descend into the moral netherworld ( ... )
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Are you sure? I would think that Buffy would have raised the issue regardless. Buffy seems to have clearly viewed the killing of the deputy mayor in the larger context of Faith's overall behavior. Buffy had been remarking upon Faith's out-of-control style all season long, and not merely because Buffy was previously used to being the "Bad Slayer" herself.
It’s a rather breathtaking claim to make, considering that Buffy tried to kill Faith, and did succeed in putting her into a coma. I’m not aware of any moment where Buffy admits that at least once in her life, she deliberately tried to kill another human being.She admits this to Xander, even before she does it ( ... )
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And Buffy invokes the word 'killer' early on, at the end of Bad Girls. That shift in tone is what I'm trying to draw attention to -- and I think Ted is a good place to look for an explanation about where it's coming from.
It's not merely 'Ted'. Buffy, by Bad Girls has dealt with a number of murderers, both demon and human. And a key signpost is Faith's unwillingness to display contrition or guilt. This is valid, IMO. Faith, in the aftermath, does indeed become a killer - largely because she continues to abdicate responsibility for her actions and judgments.
Buffy is not being moralistic. She is being moral. And even Faith knows that, though she won't acknowledge it.
The viewer knows Faith is conflicted, but Buffy is not privy to Faith's moment in the bathroom. It is unrealistic to expect Buffy to read Faith's mind if Faith isn't going to share.
Buffy's near-killing of Faith is a far more deliberate act than Faith's failure to respond quickly enough to the discovery that the person she was staking was human.When Willow yells "Buffy ( ... )
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I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the details of your analysis of Buffy's dark side--for instance, I've long wondered if Buffy didn't subconsciously sense that Ted wasn't human--but the overall thrust seems accurate. (I tend to deal with these things in fic more often than in meta--see Shadow Sun and following.)
I've often been interested in the idea of comparing Buffy and Faith more closely with Kendra. Kendra is presented to us as the "light" Slayer against Buffy prior to Faith's appearance--totally in control and always willing to do the Council's bidding. But we eventually learn that the Council is not so pure itself, and looking back from that revelation I sometimes wonder if Kendra is really as good a person as she seems. She certainly does come across very harsh and self-righteous at times, albeit with excuse--"(Angel)'s a vampire. He should die."
Perhaps I should meta on that subject... ;)
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I sometimes wonder if Kendra is really as good a person as she seems. She certainly does come across very harsh and self-righteous at times, albeit with excuse--"(Angel)'s a vampire. He should die."
Kendra says the words - but she doesn't act upon them. Regardless of council training, she has an open mind and can be persuaded to change her positions. In many ways, I think that with Kendra it's more a matter of limited experience. Introduce her to a Clem, and I doubt she'd be killing him.
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