FAN ART / FAN MIX
So for my first winter_of_faith offering, I decided to do a past-present-future tarot reading for Faith based on where she's been, where she is ~now~ (meaning Buffy era) and a combination of Angel-era and where the writers envisioned her future to be (to paraphrase, one-girl army motorcycle ninja vigilante, yes? *g*)
The reading:
Past
When Strength is in the past position of your reading, you can see the basis of your current situation stemming from a mastery of your circumstances. You maintained composure recently and are benefiting from your patience and expertise. Sometimes this card represents a state of boredom in your past that led you to stray from familiar conditions that you felt you had outgrown. Your ordinary world had been mastered and the journey you are now on is based on a desire to challenge yourself and see all that life may have to offer.
When screenwriters especially talk about the "ordinary world", they mean the world that the character originally comes from. We get a lot of hints and sneak peeks as to what Faith's ordinary world before becoming a slayer was like, which build up an uncomfortable picture. In a story, a character's journey only begins when they've reached a static point in their life, a point where they wouldn't have changed had an external force not come into play and knocked the character onto a different path. While Faith's early life might not have been exactly picket fences and smiles, we get the feeling that before the Slayer powers kicked in, Faith at least had reached an impasse between her attitude and the environment of her "ordinary world" - even if that impasse was all rage, all the time. Had the Slayer legacy not been given to her, Faith would have left her "ordinary" awful life behind regardless to roam the world. She'd outgrown her ordinary world - the Slayer strength just levered her onto a different path to challenge herself and see the world.
Present
In the present position, this card's appearance is your wake up call. You are hooked into something and may not even realize it. It could be the mindset of being a victim, or it could be the need to have a buzz before facing the day. You are being held back by something that you willingly embraced, at least initially. Perhaps your once great lover has become an embittered hater who takes out his resentments on you with verbal abuse. Whatever the case, The Devil card here acknowledges that a terrible connection in your life right now is chaining you down from being whom you truly are.If this isn't a card for Faith's relationship with the mayor then I don't know what is. Faith's need for an adrenaline buzz and her dangerous attachment to the mayor is a combination that will lead to her downfall - if she didn't get a wake-up call. (Which, thankfully, is provided.
Faith's story could have so easily been a complete tragedy. There's a rule of three in storytelling where if a character actively chooses what they want over what they need at three different checkpoints in the story, then the character's end has to be tragic. Faith's already shown in the past she'll choose what she wants over what she needs, and choosing to ally herself with the mayor is another want over need checkpoint - driven by the want for a father-figure, Faith overlooks what she needs (the stable support network, such as Buffy and co. could offer.)
Faith gets her wake-up call, and finally - in the future - we are mostly assured she chooses what she needs, finding a redemptive path with Angel. For her, she'll always be travelling a narrow road between want and need, which is probably why Faith's journey is one of the most interesting in the whole Whedon-verse. We're constantly sitting on the edge of our seats, hoping that she won't drive off this path the wrong way. The tension's unbearable, but the pay-offs are always worth it.
Future
When the Justice card appears in the future position of your Tarot reading, the things that you are working on in your life now are inevitably leading you toward having to make a big decision. We think of many things in life as solid, but no matter how firm they are, most things are fleeting or transitory. The deepest friendships of our youth are affected by geography and the shift of what we choose to do with our lives. These shifts are imperceptibly slow, but it is as if they do not actually change until we notice that they are changing; by then they are too far removed from what they once were to ever be again as we lived them. The Tarot is telling you to get ready for a big change no matter how minor a decision you are about to make.
And so we're onto Faith's future. Faith's always been on a journey of small decisions that lead to big changes. She prevaricates on making the big decisions (as we all do) and at some point Faith has to realise a big decision needs to be made. And make it she does, under Angel's wary eyes, she finally embraces the fact that she can change. She finds her equilibrium in prison, and her life changes hugely when she decides to "fight the good fight".
Where the writers envisioned her jetting off to help people on a motorbike alone, Faith's eventual comicverse storyline includes her teaming up with Angel to help Giles. She's tethered by emotional connections, but that doesn't bother her; the deepest friendships of her youth have come to fruition. Whereas once upon a time these were the relationships she saw as transitory and fleeting, these are the relationships that have survived time and all manner of obstacles. Faith might still strike out on her own to fight the good fight, but she's never really alone any more, and the difference with future Faith - as compared to past and present Faith - is that she embraces this rather than fights against it. Third time lucky, need wins out over want, and Faith's character journey is secured as redemption, not tragedy.
The fanmix:
PAST
Nine Inch Nails - You Know What You Are?
I tried to sneak myself through, tried to get to the other side
I had to patch up the cracks and the holes that I have to hide
For a little bit of time even made it work okay
Just long enough to really make it hurt
When they figured me out and it all just rotted away
Placebo - Black Eyed
I was never faithful
And I was never one to trust
Borderlining schizo
And guaranteed to cause a fuss
I was never loyal
Except to my own pleasure zone
I'm forever black-eyed
A product of a broken home
Three Days Grace - Get Out Alive
This is my last time she said
As she faded away
It's hard to imagine
But one day you'll end up like me
Then she said
If you want to get out alive
Hold on run for your life
If you want to get out alive
Run for your life
PRESENT
Thirty Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie
It's time to forget about the past
To wash away what happened last
Hide behind an empty face
Don't ask too much, just say
'Cause this is just a game
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dull Life
One mistake in a subtle way
Like I'm walking again, all on me
Step slowly, you know that you fall between
Dark places, what a simple web we weave
We've seen the nightmare of the lies that you speak
The beast that I lie beneath is coming in
We've seen the nightmare of the lies that you speak
The beast that I lie beneath is coming in
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires
Frightened under attack
Fallen flat on my back
Arms and legs I'm too scared to beg
Harm me most when it's light
Thought of you don't sit right
I need the darkness a desperate embrace
Rachel Yamagata - Accident
Two sides working together
And working against one another
Two bad souls are destroyed
It's the nature of business
You know how this part is
FUTURE
White Hinterland - Icarus
Together going arm and arm
To meet our solitude, to meet it head on
I'll meet you where the water's warm
To meet my solitude, I'll meet it head on
Trapt - Made of Glass
I don't know anything at all and I'm somebody else
It could take years to find you, it could take years to find myself
And I don't need to hear your answer I just need you to see
That I think it's time to break down these walls that we throw up
3 Doors Down - Citizen/Soldier
Hope and pray that you'll never need me,
But rest assured I will not let you down.
I'll walk beside you but you may not see me,
The strongest among you may not wear a crown.
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