COULD THE POLITICAL CONTEXT INFLUENCE THE WRITING IN BTVS S7 AND S8?
Yesterday, a reflexion made by stormwreath reminded me of something I had noticed when watching for the first time S7 . Here is what he said : "While there is torture in 'Buffy' it's noticeable that in Season 7 there's a good example of torture not working, and actually providing false information. I do wonder if that's because the writers changed their views, or realised that their over-simplistic presentation in the earlier seasons was a bad idea? S7 was the first one to be completely written in the time after 9/11, after all, and the political climate had changed."
At the time being a certain harshness in the tone, particularly in one of the Buffy's speech as well as the theme of war or the focus on the way to lead a war, and the validity of democracy in such a situation immediately made me think about what the USA were living post 11/09. I'm not sure but could all these references be a voluntar echo and a critic of the american political context at the time being?
In the same way, in season 8, more than one element, like for example the somehow paranoiac behaviour of the slayer army, its "we're under attack and we're going to do everything we judge appropriate to protect ourselves" mentality, its isolation in a world more or less become hostile, the signs of moral corruption can be interpretated as oblique comments on the American foreign politic under Bush. Once again, I have no certitude, but it makes sense. So, it's a question I ask to my flist, or those of them who follow the comics and have a much more extended perception of them than I : could there be a political critic of the american reaction to 9/11 under Bush? (Not that the slayers or Buffy are metaphores for the american governement, but simply that J Whedon uses his story or part of his stories to refer to Bush's politic)