"Time of Your Life" meta

[angearia]

I've been reading old reviews of Buffy Season 8, pondering the season and re-evaluating the story, and once again "Time of Your Life" has me wondering.

Spoilers for all of Season 8

Comments

[stormwreath]

You wrote Season 8 meta!!! ♥

I pretty much agree with your interpretation although I can think of other possibilities too. I've tended to see the importance of TOYL more from Buffy's perspective - how much of a radical change it marked in her story, and how much it influenced her actions in the second half of the season. Not only having to kill her best friend, but learning that ultimately, she failed - her grand experiment in creating the Slayer Army would come to nothing. Hence, perhaps, her willingness to grab Angel with both hands when he offered a different solution

[angearia]

I did! Look at that! ♥

This is the thing about ToYL that makes it so enjoyable for me, but it's also really frustrating for a lot of people. We're grasping at straws for specifics when it comes to the questions I posed. I think we have to interpret a lot and that gets dicey.

I pretty much agree with your interpretation although I can think of other possibilities too.

So can I. This was what my gut + brain was telling me last night. :)

It's quite possible Future!Willow was manipulating events 200 years in her past because she needed Buffy to do something differently, or be in a different frame of mind. The other alternative is that her plan had nothing to do with our own time except tangentially - she needed Buffy for her own purposes.

Scott Allie suggested that Willow, after 200 years, simply wanted to die and wanted Buffy to be the one to kill her.I didn't mention Willow wanting to die, but I actually think that's also a huge motivation here. I just think there's more in play

[stormwreath]

LJ ate my reply. grrr. Let's see how much I can reconstruct

[angearia]

it's definitely more satisfying to think that her plan succeeded because it involved something happening to her, then, in the year 22-whatever, than that it was all about us here now

I feel like Willow living for 200 hundred years alone and then manipulating her best friend to kill her is already so OMGTRAGIC that I have trouble imagining Joss would also make her plan hopeless and ineffectual. He veers towards the dark, but the purpose has always seemed to be to starkly contrast that one remaining flicker of hope that remains strong enough to once again blaze bright. (I was reading Beer Good's meta on Whedon's use of Shakespeare and a comparison in comments was about how Whedon's more hopeful than Shakespeare; his tragedies aren't as tragic as the Bard's.)

My reading? She had the last of the world's magic carefully saved up inside her body, and being killed with the Scythe allowed it to flow back into the Earth to restore it to how it was before. With the magic leaving her body, she can die as a normal woman againAh, yes! I'd

[stormwreath]

I think Willow would show Mel whatever it took to convince her both that Buffy must be stopped, and that Willow's reasons for that were personal and justifiable. She'd lie or distort events if needed, but sometimes the truth is even more effective.

On the other hand, Mel didn't seem to regard Buffy as an evil apocalypse-starting monster; simply that she was too selfish and self-absorbed to care about destroying Mel's world when she went back to her own.

(And in light of 8.39/40 you can substitute "Willow's" for "Mel's" into that last sentence if you like.)

If the Potentials were born with inherent power and the Chosen spell was about reversing the magic imposed by the Shadowmen -- then by rights, shouldn't the power still pass on from body to body, life to life? You'd think, but sadly I think the effects of breaking the Seed are "whatever we want them to be". For that matter, everyone's talking about how witches draw magical power from other dimensions, and ar now cut off from them - but didn't Willow's power in 7.22 come from

[angearia]

I need to reread ToYL again, tbh. I'm going based on memory which works well enough, but I think I'd have more solid theories based upon the impression given by the art/writing/mood. There's all kinds of cues that I'm no doubt not considering here.

So we should raincheck on this convo? Though even after reading ToYL, I still feel like Season 9 is an essential missing piece of the puzzle.

You'd think, but sadly I think the effects of breaking the Seed are "whatever we want them to be".

In a way, it's always like this. The phlebotinum will yield to the master. But I keep getting stuck on that line from Fray, that girls had the power, but none were Called.

[stormwreath]

You don't keep all the S8 TPBs right next to your computer for instant reference? Shame. SHAME.

;-)

[angearia]

Haha, I actually don't have all the TPBs, just the individual issues. I've been waiting for the deluxe edition to be released!