Fanfic Discussion: 3 Deep: Ep 2…Buffy’s Dream
Insomnia, my old familiar bedfellow…you have finally inspired me to get off my figurative ass and post my thoughts on the opening sequence of Episode 2 of “3 Deep” by the writers at Tea at the Ford.
I’ve been planning a big post addressing the dream/fantasy sequences, allusions, and subtext in “3 Deep”, but after tinkering with it for months, it has become obvious that 1) the post wants to be broken up into sections, 2) several of the sequences that interest me will likely be further illuminated if I hold off discussing them for another episode or two, and 3) if I wait until all my thoughts are coherent, I’ll never post anything.
Some of the glorious texture found in the first five chapters will likely turn out to be entertaining ‘local color’ rather than a clever way of foreshadowing plot points or character arcs. However, Buffy’s Dream is obviously meant to be prophetic, so, I’ll start with that. At the time Chapter 2 was posted, there were a number of terrific discussions about it at Virtual Ford and on individual journals such as stultiloquentia's, so my current thoughts should be viewed as gestating from a hive mind. I, hereby, thank the Hive Mind.
Text reproduced below. My thoughts in blue.
***
The seashore. The desert. The sky.
A trio is evoked, but is it merely style or is it substance? If substance, how literal? The three leads meeting and melding, complementing and contrasting?
Sea-birds screamed overhead, and great fish far out at the horizon leapt in green pinwheels, like carnival toys revolving--leaping up from the surface of the sand, the sea, and falling back again in sprays of sea, of sand.
Hmmm…could represent the Wheel of Time/Wheel of the Year.
Buffy plunged through sucking eddies of sand, treading deep in lapping water, her footprints washing away behind, the light stabbing like knives. She held Axcalibur high, angling the magic blade against the sky too bright to see--white heat, white water, white light.
Never a mystical tube of sunblock when you needed one.
Her palm burned against the cool haft of the weapon. Well, she'd wanted the fire back, hadn't she?
Buffy’s possible sense of overexposure; having chosen a path of “light” that rejected the demonic origins of her singular primal slayer self, she’s now uncomfortable in the glare of an un-shadowed and un-sheltering life?
Waves curled round her ankles. Salt water, staining her red boots, eating its way in.
What represents her power? The axe, representing her slayer aspect? Or the boots, the girlish aspect? If the latter, her sense of self is being tainted, eaten away. Mythologically speaking, I think salt water represents creation or life, and is symbolic of blood, and sometimes kinship. Creating all those slayers…is that symbol of shared kinship damaging her sense of self?
Or, more simply, is reality simply beginning to intrude on her created fantasy-life of shallow frivolity?
Tide was turning, and the wind skated over the water like a skipping stone. She looked out, half-expecting to see a hand rising from the sea, wanting the axe back again.
This Arthurian imagery kinda surprised me, and might actually be meaningless as it’s merely a blip in the dream sequence. But Buffy does refer to her axe as “Axecalibur”, so behold the extensive symbolic crap I can spin (and don’t ask me from whence I pulled these ideas about the Arthurian archetypes, as I’m sure I don’t remember):
Arthur/Angel: His mother and sister/lover (Darla) are mythological representations of the goddess with power over birth and death; he does murder to prevent the birth of his son (no, but does the guilt for tens of thousands killed count?) and is judged unredeemable. In some mythologies is then cursed to be the ‘eternal champion’ who cannot ever atone (bingo). Son is taken away and grows to manhood in hiding, then returns to depose him (although Connor didn’t succeed…at least not so far….) Mythologically, Arthur’s ‘kingdom’ is sundered when his sacred power (often represented by the queen) is stolen from him, or betrays him. I suppose one could take the view that Angel’s ‘kingdom’ is his sense of integrated identity, in which case loss of his soul could be interpreted as loss of this power, particularly in the original instance with B, and B’s subsequent alliance with Spike as the betrayal. Also could refer to the loss of Cordelia and her alliance with Connor, since the queen typically ‘betrays’ him with the greatest warrior of his court.
Lancelot/Spike: I guess he would represent the phallic lightning god, the ‘impregnator of waters’ whose congress with the Weaver of Fate gifted him with invincibility/immortality (Dru? Or Illyria? This makes me wonder if his sexual alliance with Illyria will somehow result in a world-birth?) He is the lover-knight, forever questing for spiritual elevation via love (bingo), who ends falling hopelessly in love with Arthur’s queen and saves her from a fiery death (uh…OMWF?). Lancelot is driven mad by this love affair and the subsequent loss of his role as both warrior and lover (I’m kind of shocked how well this fits Spike). In some mythologies, he is initiated as a holy warrior and keeper of the dead by the goddess (hmmmm…the sacrifice in “Chosen”?)
But what of Buffy? Unfortunately, her parallel with The Queen is much less clear to me, partly because Guinevere’s mythological status and role are less developed (or at least, I am less aware of them). The Queen sometimes represents a new world order and her partnership with Arthur should cement a symbolic union between earth and sky/goddess and god. Certainly, Buffy has shaken up the traditional order of things with her empowerment of the Potentials. Her alliances with Angel and Spike certainly bridged a gap between the demon and human worlds. Early in BTVS Season 7, especially around the point of “Get it Done”, I was hopeful that the writers were going the route of pre-Christian mythology, to have Buffy reclaim her darkness (demon side) via an empowering sexual partnership (sacred marriage) with Spike. Spike’s sacrificial death would have perfectly suited this, as would Buffy’s creation of a race of slayers. In such a scenario, Buffy and Spike would have represented goddess and god. And Buffy could certainly be viewed as a “Keeper of the Dead” in her role as the Slayer.
But Buffy, not Angel, carries Axecalibur, so perhaps she is representing Arthur?
On second thought, this is probably just an exercise in wild fanfic fanwank, based on nothing more than a nickname for a weapon and the fact that there are three protagonists. I’m no literary scholar, and I’m rather suspicious that I might’ve just invented some of these mythological associations out of thin air…
I'm not done yet.
Presumably not, and the purpose of this dream/vision is to re-awaken B to her role and her calling. This line, conveying B’s thoughts(?) seems a direct contrast to her death-state of being ‘finished’ (“Afterlife”), and is also a nod to her cookie-dough metaphor.
Did the other slayers have to walk through this too? This was her heritage, yes, she knew that, from the First Slayer and on and on, to whatever she and Faith were made of. But the others? She wanted more for them than this blasted desert. This fathomless ocean and blinding eye of sky. How could something born of darkness burn so bright?
The last question invokes the paternal sun god, born of darkness. The sky is associated with male energy in most mythologies. But it could also be asked of the paths of any of the three champions: Angel, Buffy, Spike.
"Got to the bottom of it right there," Dawn agreed, speaking from the blind spot behind Buffy's left shoulder. Her blithe voice continued: "In Spanish they're called 'eyots.' In French, it's 'le source.' Muslims believe that water can be alive, either dark or light. The holiest of waters are the brightest, lightest . . ."
She turned. No Dawn. Of course not. It was always high noon here.
This is interesting because these are lines that would typically be said by Giles or Willow. Is Dawn going to be a Watcher? This is a neat call-back to “Restless” and also a nice play on the Lone Gunslinger concept. Also, her primal slayer identity exists in perpetual isolation from family, friends, lovers.
She kept walking, fighting her way forever to reach some shade. She’d given up the shadows hadn’t she? Maybe she didn’t belong in them anymore. Maybe they didn’t want her.
One step, two step, red step, blue step. There: A willow-tree weeping by the seaside, trailing long green fingers into deep water. She and the tree were the only living things in the whole landscape. Green water, green leaves, green as those awful boots Willow had pounced on in Camden Lock. "Look, Buff, they come in my color! Almost a match for your red ones, but a tenth the price and who'd say no to that? Here's a pair in black, size seven. Let's buy 'em for Faith, why not? Because: Watcher special courier pouch service, y'know? Goin' to L.A., free twice a week...."
Willow in green: earth magic, of course, but also re-birth? Or growth? Buffy in red: the color of blood/life/death/creation? Faith in black: the color of the shadow self/death/self-knowledge?
A wave of sickness made Buffy press a hand to her stomach, lean against the hot dry slope of the rock. Sunstroke, maybe? Someone was moaning behind her; she wished whoever it was would stop. It was hard to concentrate on keeping her footing in the deep water what with the moaning and weeping. Who had Willow lost this time, that she could cry like that? Oh my god, shut up. Shut up. Can’t you see what’s happening to me?
Loss of power? Loss of her identity? B doesn’t have any sympathy in W’s distress here. This passage is extremely self-involved (as, of course, dreams are)…Self-involvement has been a pattern for B in the past; I wonder if this reflects a current state of fundamental disconnect in her relationship with the Scoobies?
Waves were bubbling up past her thighs. Axcalibur slipped beneath the surface and she made a grab, but her fingers were stiff, unbendy things. The axe went spinning away in the current, away from her, red axe in glassy water, sliding away through the green water-grass and over the round brown stones at the sea-bottom. Her red axe, sinking out of sight.
The symbol of her (masculine?) power falls away, and with it, her sense of self…
A cramp doubled her over, a sharp twist in her womb that had her clutching at her belly. She watched as red blood unfurled in brilliant cascades from between her thighs, curling and streaming through the crystal water.
…but almost immediately is followed by a resurgence of her own (female?) power. Not sure whether this will matter in the 3D mythology, but I was always irritated that the JossVerse termed the axe (which seemed a very phallic symbol, to me) a ‘scythe’, when the scythe’s shape is a crescent, and is, in my mind, more associated with the feminine.
Now the focus shifts to fertility and the power of creation. Could also represent a passage into a new life stage, as menarche represents sexual maturity.
"What will you be, after the floods roll back?" the voice asked.
And are the ‘floods’ an apocalyptic world-altering event or a more personal transfiguration?
Buffy spun, but there was no one and when she turned back again, the sea-grass had twined up round her knees, spun green threads to bind her arms. She thought she should be struggling, and yet she just let it happen. Tentacles of kelp slid around her forehead, tilted her head back, baring her throat like a sacrifice.
Interestingly, she doesn’t fight, which indicates a willing sacrifice.
"They will drink deep from the hidden spring," said the voice. Whose voice was it? "Three deep. Under the earth, the sky, the water. Into and out of light. Remember."
In an eyeblink, in a splash of sun through the leaves, she saw a body hanging above her, the dangling boots smeared with gore. She gasped, blinked again, and it was gone.
Yes, whose voice is it? B doesn’t know, it seems. Could it be Illyria’s? And someone hangs on the Tree of Life, as a sacrifice to gain crucial knowledge? The prior imagery suggests it’s B, but going with the obvious boot-wearers, it could be half the damned cast…
Someone was wading toward her, silhouetted against the sun. And even though her head was tilted back, she could see who she thought it was. She thought, “Shouldn’t he be burning, walking over water through a desert in the noonday sun? "Wil--" Her own voice croaked in her ears. "--Liam?"
I don’t remember B ever calling Angel “Liam”, so I assume she sees Spike. Or at least, she sees who she thinks it is, but is it the person she thinks?
Fingertips like hot brands on her arms, her hips as he dropped to his knees, and began to eat her out from between her spread thighs. She felt exposed yet hidden as she lifted her legs higher, afraid to look down and see who he really was. Even though she already knew. Didn’t she?
Well, it certainly seems like Spike. What does she fear? Does she fear the demon side of her lover? Or, possibly, she actually fears not the lover himself, but her own exposure to that figure. Her secret self, which gave her power but which she never fully integrated, her essential Slayerness, was represented via violence, sexuality, blood. All these have functioned as transformative forces, metaphorically or physically, for the two vampires whose identities she seems to be conflating.
From the branches over her head, leaves curled like burning pages, and fell. She could hear herself moaning, could hear the wet slurp of his tongue all mixed up with the sound of lapping water against her thighs, and yet when she discovered her hands weren’t bound anymore, instead of touching him, she reached out to catch a burning leaf as it fluttered down and tried to read it. The first letter was M. No, it was W. Or was it a 3? Damn. It turned to ash in her hand.
The Tree of Knowledge/Tree of Life/Tree of the World...
He rose, eclipsing the sun. Oh. He was finished, and she’d forgotten to tell him something. She couldn't see anything anymore except his tender, triumphant, terrifying face. "Remember me." That was it! That was the thing she had to tell him. He took her into his arms. They rocked together, and the tree rocked with them, swayed with them, now towering high enough to snag itself on the sky, enough to tear worlds apart. It groaned, roared, shuddered and came crashing down. They fell with it; entwined, burning, the ocean closing over their heads -
Buffy sat up, her heart pounding, the bedcovers pooling around her waist. "He isn't dead," she gasped, "he's not, not dead--"
But the face was gone. As he was.
She pressed the blade Axcalibur flat to her chest, crushing the ruffles of her ruby-colored silk teddy. The one her current lover liked so well.
The dream still burned in her eyes, stained her memory like the watermark left after the flood. She still remembered every minute she had loved him once. Why conjure him up now? Why couldn't she just let go?
But Angel had always cast too long a shadow.
The lover is associated with the sun, heat, ‘burning brands’: he represents the God, which would make this coupling a Sacred Marriage and Buffy representative of the Goddess. She cannot identify his face because he is the primal male energy, and nameless. In order for the Maiden to mature, is a sacrifice required? The sacred marriage eternally destroys and remakes the world (in this case, the world seems to fall into the womb of the ocean) in an endless cycle, often via the death of the God, and his re-birth as the Son (who will later grow to partner the Goddess). “Remember me” recalls Buffy and Angel’s final separation in IWRY, but who says it here?
So, by the end of the dream she seems to have identified the lover as Angel, not Spike. I truly have no idea which of them it was meant to be, or why Buffy conjures Angel at the end.