"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

[norwie2010]

I have a simpler interpretation of the Willow-Buffy relationship in TOYL. So much in the comics is "in your face" style, i have a hard time seeing all this plotting (at which Whedon is bad anyways), scheming and, most importantly: going behind Buffy's back 'cause she needs to be patronized

[angearia]

Those are actually my foundational readings of the arc also. My theorizing here stems from the fact that if those were the only readings for Willow's motivation and her goals, then it would be overwhelming tragedy. There is no hope or light or goodness in this scenario

[norwie2010]

Revenge is in play, wanting to finally die is in play, but Future Willow is not evil and she's not completely self-serving either. I don't read those. And I'd rather think that she knew it was impossible to save magic in the past (though she might be saving/restoring magic in the future with her death) and so for her to die without accomplishing any goals besides dying and one last "fuck you" to her best friend just feels wrong. Buffy and Willow's relationship is, at its core, about being able to come home again. Willow doesn't seem vindictive towards Buffy in the future; no, she actually seems curious and what's more, her intent in wanting Buffy to understand loss isn't about making Buffy suffer, imo, but about making Buffy understand.

I agree with this. In my post i shortened the thoughts to a "revenge" scenario, but i actually agree that this is very intimately about understanding. Willow wants Buffy to see her side, her pain - then they're actually (emotionally) united, again.

And for all that Joss loves to borrow from

[angearia]

I meant to add, thank you for clearly outlining your thoughts! I really do agree with them, I just think there's more going on also. :)

[bluemage55]

That would mean Willow's last act in the world was helping to save her best friend one last time, to help Buffy get back on track (which she'll be by #40). Interestingly, this effect doesn't come about immediately. The initial emotional backlash for Buffy is to distance herself even further from her friends. She throws herself into her Slayer duties with manic passion in #20, she avoids her emotions all around until she finally breaks down and confesses to Willow in Retreat. And no doubt it's Buffy's reconnection to her emotions in Retreat -- "I feel more" -- that enable her to resist the Twilight 'paradise' and hear Xander's call

So in that case, does this mean that the Fray future we see in ToYL is what results if FDWillow hadn't gotten Buffy to kill her? Or is killing FDWillow what leads to the Fray-verse in the first place (grandfather paradoxing)?

[mikeda]

And to complicate things even further, we don't really KNOW that the space-frakking even happened in the past of the Fray timeline.

[norwie2010]

I'm pretty sure you'll read it here: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

[angearia]

Aw, thank you!!!

[mikeda]

Another interesting note is that Aluwyn deliberately conceals Future-Willow's involvement from Present-Willow.

Which raises the question of how much Aluwyn has guessed about Future-Willow's actual goals (and whether her guesses are accurate).

And the related question of what specifically Aluwyn is trying to accomplish by concealing this information from Present-Willow. What does she think Present-Willow would do that she wouldn't do if given this information? Especially since there's a reasonably good chance that Buffy will eventually tell Present-Willow about it anyway.