I blink and half a day is gone...
I think I caught up with all comments... I hope so. Anyway here's the re-done post. Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions, I think this might be the final draft! Re-posting because azdak said she'd like to see it... *g* (The first bit is pretty much unchanged btw.)
Death Wishes and quitting.
I’m new here, but I hope it’s OK to post this - I got fed up of the very very long threads in the FFL post.
In the few months I’ve been here, I’ve noticed a trend in the discussions: Very often people pick a detail and start to discuss it as though it is completely separate from the rest of the show - which of course makes discussing rather complicated, since with a show like BtVS nearly everything is connected. And then the arguments end up miles from where they started - such as the ‘death wish’ thing that became a convoluted and rather pointless discussion of whether Buffy could quit if she wanted. I’ll deal with that later.
Anyway, in the part of fandom where I usually hang out a very different approach is predominant. (That’s not to say that there are not discussions of ‘why did Spike say ‘Sire’ in School Hard’ and the ‘I’m only 126’ versus Spike actually being sired in 1880. But these are trivial points - the basis for fanwank, which is fun, but not all that important.) What I mean can better be described by this quote:
From 10 Questions for Joss Whedon:
I think it’s always important for academics to study popular culture, even if the thing they are studying is idiotic. If it’s successful or made a dent in culture, then it is worthy of study to find out why. ‘Buffy,’ on the other hand is, I hope, not idiotic. We think very carefully about what we’re trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we’re writing it. The process of breaking a story involves the writers and myself, so a lot of different influences, prejudices, and ideas get rolled up into it. So it really is, apart from being a big pop culture phenom, something that is deeply layered textually episode by episode. I do believe that there is plenty to study and there are plenty of things going on in it, as there are in me that I am completely unaware of. People used to laugh that academics would study Disney movies. There’s nothing more important for academics to study, because they shape the minds of our children possibly more than any single thing. So, like that, I think ‘Buffy’ should be analyzed, broken down, and possibly banned.
BtVS has to be looked at structurally, thematically, emotionally etc. to get the most out of it. (Which is why choosing to get annoyed over one bit of bad continuity is so pointless - what about the overarching analogies, the character’s journey, the repercussions of the scene, the emotions that are at play? All these are important too and can’t be ignored.)
So, let’s look at Fool For Love and the ‘death wish’ speech. I saw someone contemptuously referring to it as ‘death wish my shiny metal ass!’ which (apart from the nifty Futurama reference) is a great insult to the writers, the characters and the show in general.
First of all season 5 is thematically all about The Slayer. We see this from beginning to end: The first episode features none other than Dracula himself - _the_ vampire of mythology. He might be portrayed as a bit of a comical figure, but almost every word he utters is full of darkness - he refers to Buffy as ‘a killer’ and ‘kindred’, he wants to teach her what she is capable of - inferring that the Watchers are not the holders of all knowledge when it comes to Slayers. It spurs Buffy into delving deeper into her ‘slayerness’. By FFL Giles has already run out of answers more or less, so Buffy turns to someone else - Spike. A vampire.
So - ‘Fool For Love’. The 7th episode of the season. We know that the 7th episode is always special (Angel, Lie To Me, Revelations, The Initiative, FFL, OMWF, CWDP), collecting and expanding all the themes of the season and also pushing the action forward. So the message in this episode is bound to be important. And what does Buffy explore? Her own mortality - why do Slayers die? (Do they just slip up, like she almost did? Is there more to it?)
The answers she gets from Spike are not exactly what she was hoping for I’m sure. The first one she knew already - I’m not going to expand on that. But the second one... the second one is _significant_! The whole episode builds to it. It _means_ something: “Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you.”
“But she doesn’t!” I can hear you all shout. Well of course she doesn’t - she’s happy and in better training than ever before. She _loves_ slaying! It’s good to be Buffy. Still that doesn’t mean that Spike is talking out of his ass as some of you seem to think. Spike is only the messenger - Joss is the one who gave him the message. The writers *use* Spike to put this idea across to us. Because - as we will see by the end of the season - even Buffy can develop a death wish. From The Gift:
BUFFY: “I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much. But I knew ... what was right. I don't have that any more. I don't understand. I don't know how to live in this world if these are the choices. If everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point.”
“Sooner or later, you're gonna want it...” Spike said.
And he was right. But that doesn’t mean that she’ll ever follow through.
When Buffy stands on that platform with a portal opening underneath her feet she sees a way out - a way to save her sister, a way to save the world and she takes it. But - the death wish doesn’t really play into it much, even though it might or might not be there.
Here’s what Joss had to say recently:
“Is taking fire so your men can get to safe ground in combat suicide? I think not. Buffy's sacrifice draws mainly on two mythic images: Christ (you all got that) and Ripley in Alien 3. Both sacificing themselves for the preservation of mankind. Buffy had no pattern of despair (yet), though she did shoulder her burdens heavily (as did those other two).”
(http://whedonesque.com/comments/9102#102883)
Every Slayer has a death wish. Sooner or later. If the circumstances are right. But that does not mean that they’ll act on it. See Spike might or might not be speaking the truth - that’s not really the issue. The issue is the effect his words have on Buffy.
Or to put it another way: Spike’s speech is foreshadowing. Not quite along the lines of ‘Restless’, since that was a dream, but one planted by the writers for us, the audience. One of those touches that shows so clearly that they had a plan all along, we just couldn’t see it until afterwards (“Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.”). Let’s look at a couple of the key episodes of S5 - The Body and Intervention. In The Body Buffy finds her mother dead. Superficially this has nothing to do with the season arc, but delve but a little below the surface, and yet again we find the two themes: Death and The Slayer. Joyce’s death is natural - she is quite simply a victim of ‘being human’. Death has always featured heavily in Buffy’s life (“Death is your art. You make it with your hands, day after day.”) and yet it is as though she has never seen it before: Buffy can save the world, but she can’t save her mother. And that hits her very hard, making her question her slayerness anew. We see this in ‘Intervention’ when she worries what being the Slayer is doing to her. So she goes off on a ‘quest’, much like in FFL. And what does The First Slayer tell her? ‘Death is your gift.’ Another unwelcome answer. And yet again death and slayerhood intertwined.
So in the end, when we get to The Gift and Buffy’s sacrifice, we can look back and see the logical path to the end, clear and satisfying on every level. And that is one of the reasons I love Buffy - because of the layers. I can keep watching and see something new every time, a line here, a scene there, all throwing a new light on what we know. It’s mesmerising. And if the writers here and there slip up - or decide to do a little ret-con - quite frankly I think it’s worth it. But that’s me. :)
Now, about the whole ‘quitting’ deal. First of all, I think we were all at cross purposes, talking about the same thing, but from different angles.
If I remember rightly, it all started with someone saying “Well if she has a death wish, why doesn’t she just quit?”
Which is a perfectly reasonable question, but one that sort of misses the point, because it doesn’t take into consideration Buffy’s character and the story lines of the show. Buffy would never quit because of a death wish. She will not even act on it, unless the circumstances are exceptional. We only have 2 or 3 instances of seeing her acting on a death wish:
1) The Gift. And as I said before, she does it because it simultaneously combines a lot of different factors. The reason she sacrifices herself is because it is the only way to save Dawn - it is the only choice she can live with, even if it means her death.
2) OMWF, when she nearly dances herself to death. At this point quitting isn’t something she has the energy for - she doesn’t want a different life, she wants no life at all. Getting up in the morning is just as much a chore as Slaying. I’d say this was the only point she had a fully developed death wish, and so didn’t resist when Sweet ‘offered’ her a way out.
3) ‘Normal Again’. This one is tricky. It isn’t about a death wish or quitting, although those factors play into it - this is the episode where Buffy hits rock bottom and finally starts to live again. (I’ve read a theory where it was put forward that Buffy came back a metaphorical vampire in ‘Bargaining’ and didn’t become ‘human’ again until this episode. I don’t have time to expand on it, but it’s food for thought.)
So, Buffy would not respond to a death wish by quitting - the first two times quitting quite simply wasn’t an option, and the third time she finally overcame the impulse.
But we’ve seen her quit several times, so what has prompted this? Let’s look at when she’s quit (or threatened to):
1) Pre-series. It’s almost the first thing we ever learn about her - she quit. Slaying cost her all her friends and she was kicked out of school. She wants to start over. And yet she gets pulled right back in because of she cares and because she can make a difference.
2) Prophecy Girl. “I’m Sixteen years old. I don’t want to die!” But when it comes down to it, she does her duty. She might be a teenager, but she manages to act completely selflessly here. There’s no death wish (the opposite in fact) but a very, very strong sense of responsibility.
3) Becoming II. Yet again she has done her duty - but this time the outcome was far from happy. She kills Angel, but that’s as much as she can manage. She quite simply does not have the strength to go on. So she runs away, like so many teens have before her when life got unbearable. But you can’t run forever and after her meeting with Lily she goes back home.
4) Graduation Day. Not sure this one counts, but it’s where she stops working for the Council. She still continues to battle the forces of evil though, but she’s old enough not to need a Watcher to tell her to go out patrolling. Another step towards adulthood and shouldering her Slayer duties herself. The older she gets, the more seriously she takes her slaying.
5) The Gift. “It doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting.” This isn’t a heartbroken teen just wanting a life. It’s a young woman finding out exactly what her limits are. Don’t know what would have happened if Dawn *had* died - but I’m sure it’s not what you were thinking of when you suggested that she should quit.
6) Dead Things. Another instance of Buffy reaching her limits - and considering that she looks upon a life in prison as preferable to what she has to go through in daily life, there is a lot of running away at this point. But it’s thinking that she is responsible for Katrina’s death that sends her over the edge. When she finds out the truth, she pulls herself back together again.
7) Normal Again. Too complicated for this post, and also the ‘quitting’ is of a completely different nature, what with the demonless AU. Let’s just leave it for when AOQ gets to it, it’ll add nothing to this discussion.
8) Empty Places/Touched. This one is also tricky. Because she doesn’t quit as much as get fired. Which was part of the culmination of The First’s plan re. Buffy, and might just have worked... Still not leaving her Slayerness behind so she can have a vineyard in France though.
I think that’s all of them. At least I can’t think of any more. We can see that she only considers quitting when she’s in extraordinary emotional trauma. But _not_ when she wants to die (except for The Gift in some measure).
Now there is another point, and one I think people have (as far as I could see) failed to address: Buffy is *The Slayer* and that’s not just a job title, it’s who she is, literally, just as Dawn is The Key: It makes her a target, a prize, a symbol, a champion... her mystical qualities are as important (if not more) than her physical abilities. To quote Caleb:
“So, you're the slayer. The slayer. The strongest, the fastest, the most aflame with that most precious invention of all mankind-the notion of goodness. The slayer must indeed be powerful.”
Why does The First target the Slayer line? Why is it not bothered about the military, or Angel, or any of the other freelance Champions roaming the earth? How can a weakness in the forces surrounding the Slayer line spark an apocalypse? Because the Slayer is important - the Slayer is more than just one girl fighting evil on a nightly basis. The Slayer is in some way woven into the fabric of ‘goodness’ (for lack of a better word), a mystical barrier against the darkness - her mere existence somehow helps tip the scales in favour of humans over demons.
Which is where the whole notion of ‘someone else’ doing her job becomes a major problem. I agree that it would not be too hard to find a replacement of some kind, if you could talk people into that sort of job for life. Excluding Faith (for the obvious reasons), who were the candidates?
1) Angel. Hmm, I can see where you’re coming from, but I can’t see him going to Sunnydale on a nightly basis to patrol. Also his life is very busy - in S2 he is preoccupied with Darla (even leaving his own mission to fight her) and in S3 he has a baby to look after. In S4 he has The Beast and a ‘happy’ apocalypse to stop, when he isn’t evil that is. (Also there’s the whole redemption thing and the PTB, but we can leave that out if you like.) After S4 the question is obsolete.
2) The Initiative/The Army. I’m not sure about this. What has the government done until now? Set up The (Demon Research) Initiative, and sent off a few Army teams to South America to deal with some of the most vicious demons. And as far as I can tell that’s it. The Initiative wasn’t even set up to save people, but to utilise the demons somehow (also remember the Men In Black who took away Marcie in OOMOOS). Not to mention the fact that they do not understand the magical aspects of the world and would not act upon most apocalypses. Basically I don’t trust them and I don’t see why they would ever do the Slayer’s job. (There’s more to this. If you’re curious, ask, and I’ll post the remainder, the main point being: They know about the demons, and yet they do next to nothing. Now why could that be?)
3) Wesley, Gunn, similar people. This is actually by far the best bet. Certainly doable, if you got some people willing to risk their lives just because the Slayer decided to quit. But there are other problems: Funding for a start (I know Buffy looked after 30-odd Potential Slayers for a few months. She could not have done this indefinitely, which is what we’re talking about.). So who would pay? The Council certainly wouldn’t, they don’t even pay The Slayer. Maybe they could set up an agency a la Angel Investigations, presuming Sunnydale is big enough for that kind of agency, and also that the authorities will let them - do not forget that Sunnydale was built on the Hellmouth specifically for the demons’ sake. And that people _don’t talk_ about the things that go bump in the night. But if I squint, I can just see that it’s possible.
That is all well and good, but does not address the point I made above - The Slayer is important. What happens when she has a prophetic dream? Or when there’s a prophecy mentioning her? Or when a tenacious vampire like Spike decides to seek her out? Or when - like in Wtth - she’s in a situation where someone needs help and she’s the only one around with the strength and skill to help? Should she just walk on by? Her Slayerness *isn’t* a job, it’s who she is, no matter where she lives or what life she leads!
To quote Spiderman: “With great strength comes great responsibility.” Peter Parker didn’t ask for his powers, and neither did most super heroes we read about/watch. But they all decided to use their powers for good, rather than sit around whining that life’s unfair. Well here’s some news for all of you: Life is never fair! Just look at Ford in ‘Lie To Me’. His illness means that he has a shorter life expectancy than Buffy, and he seeks a way out - a way to quit. And here’s what she tells him:
“You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice. You're opting for mass murder here and nothing you say to me is gonna make that okay.”
Or look at Cordy: She was given visions by TPTB and tried to find any way out that she could. And yet with time, she came to value her gift, even though it was killing her. From ‘Disharmony’:
Cordy: “It's like - I don't know. I had these air pockets inside of me, and the work I'm doing, uh, we're doing, it's-it's like the pockets keep getting filled and I'm becoming me and...”
And when she had the option to quit (and not like the devil’s bargain Buffy sort-of had in ‘Normal Again’, but a brand new life with *everything* she ever wanted) what did she do? She took her visions right back because she didn’t want to see Angel suffer. Now you might call that stupidity. I call it bravery.
But to return to Buffy. Let’s stop talking about hypothetical scenarios, and think about where in canon you’d like her to quit (first giving her some sort of personality makeover, since the actual Buffy never quitted in the later seasons, but you’re apparently not too fussed about her behaving out of character, so that should work well):
S5? She tries to run away, and look how well that went. She can’t leave her ‘job’ behind, since Dawn’s safety is dependant upon it. Quitting is not an option.
S6? She’d like to quit, absolutely, she even tries a few times. But I think that she’s much too lost herself to even think about putting together some sort of team to fight evil on her behalf. The Scoobies aren’t capable on their own, especially not with Willow being unable to use magic. And even *if* she left, it could only be a temporary reprieve since The First Evil is waiting around the corner, ready to release mayhem. As the saying goes: All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing.
S7? As I said - First Evil! And as far as I can tell, it’s main aim re. Buffy was to make her quit. Look at ‘Empty Places’ and Buffy being all alone. (Thank goodness for Spike is all I can say.)
It’s simple: Buffy can’t quit. Even if she could physically walk away from her mission, the fact of who she is would force her back to fight, if nothing else then for her own life. And of course (as we have seen) her conscience would always bring her back. (I see the soul as giving people a conscience. Whether they act upon it, is something else. Thankfully Buffy does!)
Basically you need to go outside canon to argue this point, which leads us to fanfiction. I’m not saying this disparagingly, but just pointing out that fanfic is a much better way of delving into such topics. Some of the best thoughts about Buffy that I’ve ever read came from fanfic. All fanfic springs from one question: ‘What if?’ What if Dawn had died in The Gift - what would have happened? Or what if some incident or other made Buffy quit for good? Think about it, and work out where it would go. If you can make people believe your scenario, especially those prone to disagree on principle, then you might be onto something!
I think I'll end with a quote by Angel, one of my favourite from the entire 'verse and one that encapsulates a lot of why I love the heroes on both shows:
“...I did get time to think. About us, about the world. - Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. - It's harsh, and cruel. - But that's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world was what it should be, to show it what it can be.”
Angel, Deep Down.
Anyway, I write too much. Sorry about that - I hope I didn’t bore you.
~~~~~~~~~
Finally I came across a fabulous quote by A. A. Gill (from his TV review). He's probably my favourite journalist - I don't always agree with him, but he's intelligent, writes exceedingly well and always has a compelling argument:
'Mind you, I did enjoy meeting [as in watching] the wild-food forager who would eat only roadkill, because farmed meat was unethical. So his protein intake was harvested by lorries and SUVs as they pounded motorways. The asinine dumbness that is excused by moral self-righteousness never ceases to amaze me.'
That last line just struck me as particularly apt re. those fans who think Buffy does not have a moral obligation to use her gifts, because they were forced on her!
Death Wishes and quitting.
I’m new here, but I hope it’s OK to post this - I got fed up of the very very long threads in the FFL post.
In the few months I’ve been here, I’ve noticed a trend in the discussions: Very often people pick a detail and start to discuss it as though it is completely separate from the rest of the show - which of course makes discussing rather complicated, since with a show like BtVS nearly everything is connected. And then the arguments end up miles from where they started - such as the ‘death wish’ thing that became a convoluted and rather pointless discussion of whether Buffy could quit if she wanted. I’ll deal with that later.
Anyway, in the part of fandom where I usually hang out a very different approach is predominant. (That’s not to say that there are not discussions of ‘why did Spike say ‘Sire’ in School Hard’ and the ‘I’m only 126’ versus Spike actually being sired in 1880. But these are trivial points - the basis for fanwank, which is fun, but not all that important.) What I mean can better be described by this quote:
From 10 Questions for Joss Whedon:
I think it’s always important for academics to study popular culture, even if the thing they are studying is idiotic. If it’s successful or made a dent in culture, then it is worthy of study to find out why. ‘Buffy,’ on the other hand is, I hope, not idiotic. We think very carefully about what we’re trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we’re writing it. The process of breaking a story involves the writers and myself, so a lot of different influences, prejudices, and ideas get rolled up into it. So it really is, apart from being a big pop culture phenom, something that is deeply layered textually episode by episode. I do believe that there is plenty to study and there are plenty of things going on in it, as there are in me that I am completely unaware of. People used to laugh that academics would study Disney movies. There’s nothing more important for academics to study, because they shape the minds of our children possibly more than any single thing. So, like that, I think ‘Buffy’ should be analyzed, broken down, and possibly banned.
BtVS has to be looked at structurally, thematically, emotionally etc. to get the most out of it. (Which is why choosing to get annoyed over one bit of bad continuity is so pointless - what about the overarching analogies, the character’s journey, the repercussions of the scene, the emotions that are at play? All these are important too and can’t be ignored.)
So, let’s look at Fool For Love and the ‘death wish’ speech. I saw someone contemptuously referring to it as ‘death wish my shiny metal ass!’ which (apart from the nifty Futurama reference) is a great insult to the writers, the characters and the show in general.
First of all season 5 is thematically all about The Slayer. We see this from beginning to end: The first episode features none other than Dracula himself - _the_ vampire of mythology. He might be portrayed as a bit of a comical figure, but almost every word he utters is full of darkness - he refers to Buffy as ‘a killer’ and ‘kindred’, he wants to teach her what she is capable of - inferring that the Watchers are not the holders of all knowledge when it comes to Slayers. It spurs Buffy into delving deeper into her ‘slayerness’. By FFL Giles has already run out of answers more or less, so Buffy turns to someone else - Spike. A vampire.
So - ‘Fool For Love’. The 7th episode of the season. We know that the 7th episode is always special (Angel, Lie To Me, Revelations, The Initiative, FFL, OMWF, CWDP), collecting and expanding all the themes of the season and also pushing the action forward. So the message in this episode is bound to be important. And what does Buffy explore? Her own mortality - why do Slayers die? (Do they just slip up, like she almost did? Is there more to it?)
The answers she gets from Spike are not exactly what she was hoping for I’m sure. The first one she knew already - I’m not going to expand on that. But the second one... the second one is _significant_! The whole episode builds to it. It _means_ something: “Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you.”
“But she doesn’t!” I can hear you all shout. Well of course she doesn’t - she’s happy and in better training than ever before. She _loves_ slaying! It’s good to be Buffy. Still that doesn’t mean that Spike is talking out of his ass as some of you seem to think. Spike is only the messenger - Joss is the one who gave him the message. The writers *use* Spike to put this idea across to us. Because - as we will see by the end of the season - even Buffy can develop a death wish. From The Gift:
BUFFY: “I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much. But I knew ... what was right. I don't have that any more. I don't understand. I don't know how to live in this world if these are the choices. If everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point.”
“Sooner or later, you're gonna want it...” Spike said.
And he was right. But that doesn’t mean that she’ll ever follow through.
When Buffy stands on that platform with a portal opening underneath her feet she sees a way out - a way to save her sister, a way to save the world and she takes it. But - the death wish doesn’t really play into it much, even though it might or might not be there.
Here’s what Joss had to say recently:
“Is taking fire so your men can get to safe ground in combat suicide? I think not. Buffy's sacrifice draws mainly on two mythic images: Christ (you all got that) and Ripley in Alien 3. Both sacificing themselves for the preservation of mankind. Buffy had no pattern of despair (yet), though she did shoulder her burdens heavily (as did those other two).”
(http://whedonesque.com/comments/9102#102883)
Every Slayer has a death wish. Sooner or later. If the circumstances are right. But that does not mean that they’ll act on it. See Spike might or might not be speaking the truth - that’s not really the issue. The issue is the effect his words have on Buffy.
Or to put it another way: Spike’s speech is foreshadowing. Not quite along the lines of ‘Restless’, since that was a dream, but one planted by the writers for us, the audience. One of those touches that shows so clearly that they had a plan all along, we just couldn’t see it until afterwards (“Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.”). Let’s look at a couple of the key episodes of S5 - The Body and Intervention. In The Body Buffy finds her mother dead. Superficially this has nothing to do with the season arc, but delve but a little below the surface, and yet again we find the two themes: Death and The Slayer. Joyce’s death is natural - she is quite simply a victim of ‘being human’. Death has always featured heavily in Buffy’s life (“Death is your art. You make it with your hands, day after day.”) and yet it is as though she has never seen it before: Buffy can save the world, but she can’t save her mother. And that hits her very hard, making her question her slayerness anew. We see this in ‘Intervention’ when she worries what being the Slayer is doing to her. So she goes off on a ‘quest’, much like in FFL. And what does The First Slayer tell her? ‘Death is your gift.’ Another unwelcome answer. And yet again death and slayerhood intertwined.
So in the end, when we get to The Gift and Buffy’s sacrifice, we can look back and see the logical path to the end, clear and satisfying on every level. And that is one of the reasons I love Buffy - because of the layers. I can keep watching and see something new every time, a line here, a scene there, all throwing a new light on what we know. It’s mesmerising. And if the writers here and there slip up - or decide to do a little ret-con - quite frankly I think it’s worth it. But that’s me. :)
Now, about the whole ‘quitting’ deal. First of all, I think we were all at cross purposes, talking about the same thing, but from different angles.
If I remember rightly, it all started with someone saying “Well if she has a death wish, why doesn’t she just quit?”
Which is a perfectly reasonable question, but one that sort of misses the point, because it doesn’t take into consideration Buffy’s character and the story lines of the show. Buffy would never quit because of a death wish. She will not even act on it, unless the circumstances are exceptional. We only have 2 or 3 instances of seeing her acting on a death wish:
1) The Gift. And as I said before, she does it because it simultaneously combines a lot of different factors. The reason she sacrifices herself is because it is the only way to save Dawn - it is the only choice she can live with, even if it means her death.
2) OMWF, when she nearly dances herself to death. At this point quitting isn’t something she has the energy for - she doesn’t want a different life, she wants no life at all. Getting up in the morning is just as much a chore as Slaying. I’d say this was the only point she had a fully developed death wish, and so didn’t resist when Sweet ‘offered’ her a way out.
3) ‘Normal Again’. This one is tricky. It isn’t about a death wish or quitting, although those factors play into it - this is the episode where Buffy hits rock bottom and finally starts to live again. (I’ve read a theory where it was put forward that Buffy came back a metaphorical vampire in ‘Bargaining’ and didn’t become ‘human’ again until this episode. I don’t have time to expand on it, but it’s food for thought.)
So, Buffy would not respond to a death wish by quitting - the first two times quitting quite simply wasn’t an option, and the third time she finally overcame the impulse.
But we’ve seen her quit several times, so what has prompted this? Let’s look at when she’s quit (or threatened to):
1) Pre-series. It’s almost the first thing we ever learn about her - she quit. Slaying cost her all her friends and she was kicked out of school. She wants to start over. And yet she gets pulled right back in because of she cares and because she can make a difference.
2) Prophecy Girl. “I’m Sixteen years old. I don’t want to die!” But when it comes down to it, she does her duty. She might be a teenager, but she manages to act completely selflessly here. There’s no death wish (the opposite in fact) but a very, very strong sense of responsibility.
3) Becoming II. Yet again she has done her duty - but this time the outcome was far from happy. She kills Angel, but that’s as much as she can manage. She quite simply does not have the strength to go on. So she runs away, like so many teens have before her when life got unbearable. But you can’t run forever and after her meeting with Lily she goes back home.
4) Graduation Day. Not sure this one counts, but it’s where she stops working for the Council. She still continues to battle the forces of evil though, but she’s old enough not to need a Watcher to tell her to go out patrolling. Another step towards adulthood and shouldering her Slayer duties herself. The older she gets, the more seriously she takes her slaying.
5) The Gift. “It doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting.” This isn’t a heartbroken teen just wanting a life. It’s a young woman finding out exactly what her limits are. Don’t know what would have happened if Dawn *had* died - but I’m sure it’s not what you were thinking of when you suggested that she should quit.
6) Dead Things. Another instance of Buffy reaching her limits - and considering that she looks upon a life in prison as preferable to what she has to go through in daily life, there is a lot of running away at this point. But it’s thinking that she is responsible for Katrina’s death that sends her over the edge. When she finds out the truth, she pulls herself back together again.
7) Normal Again. Too complicated for this post, and also the ‘quitting’ is of a completely different nature, what with the demonless AU. Let’s just leave it for when AOQ gets to it, it’ll add nothing to this discussion.
8) Empty Places/Touched. This one is also tricky. Because she doesn’t quit as much as get fired. Which was part of the culmination of The First’s plan re. Buffy, and might just have worked... Still not leaving her Slayerness behind so she can have a vineyard in France though.
I think that’s all of them. At least I can’t think of any more. We can see that she only considers quitting when she’s in extraordinary emotional trauma. But _not_ when she wants to die (except for The Gift in some measure).
Now there is another point, and one I think people have (as far as I could see) failed to address: Buffy is *The Slayer* and that’s not just a job title, it’s who she is, literally, just as Dawn is The Key: It makes her a target, a prize, a symbol, a champion... her mystical qualities are as important (if not more) than her physical abilities. To quote Caleb:
“So, you're the slayer. The slayer. The strongest, the fastest, the most aflame with that most precious invention of all mankind-the notion of goodness. The slayer must indeed be powerful.”
Why does The First target the Slayer line? Why is it not bothered about the military, or Angel, or any of the other freelance Champions roaming the earth? How can a weakness in the forces surrounding the Slayer line spark an apocalypse? Because the Slayer is important - the Slayer is more than just one girl fighting evil on a nightly basis. The Slayer is in some way woven into the fabric of ‘goodness’ (for lack of a better word), a mystical barrier against the darkness - her mere existence somehow helps tip the scales in favour of humans over demons.
Which is where the whole notion of ‘someone else’ doing her job becomes a major problem. I agree that it would not be too hard to find a replacement of some kind, if you could talk people into that sort of job for life. Excluding Faith (for the obvious reasons), who were the candidates?
1) Angel. Hmm, I can see where you’re coming from, but I can’t see him going to Sunnydale on a nightly basis to patrol. Also his life is very busy - in S2 he is preoccupied with Darla (even leaving his own mission to fight her) and in S3 he has a baby to look after. In S4 he has The Beast and a ‘happy’ apocalypse to stop, when he isn’t evil that is. (Also there’s the whole redemption thing and the PTB, but we can leave that out if you like.) After S4 the question is obsolete.
2) The Initiative/The Army. I’m not sure about this. What has the government done until now? Set up The (Demon Research) Initiative, and sent off a few Army teams to South America to deal with some of the most vicious demons. And as far as I can tell that’s it. The Initiative wasn’t even set up to save people, but to utilise the demons somehow (also remember the Men In Black who took away Marcie in OOMOOS). Not to mention the fact that they do not understand the magical aspects of the world and would not act upon most apocalypses. Basically I don’t trust them and I don’t see why they would ever do the Slayer’s job. (There’s more to this. If you’re curious, ask, and I’ll post the remainder, the main point being: They know about the demons, and yet they do next to nothing. Now why could that be?)
3) Wesley, Gunn, similar people. This is actually by far the best bet. Certainly doable, if you got some people willing to risk their lives just because the Slayer decided to quit. But there are other problems: Funding for a start (I know Buffy looked after 30-odd Potential Slayers for a few months. She could not have done this indefinitely, which is what we’re talking about.). So who would pay? The Council certainly wouldn’t, they don’t even pay The Slayer. Maybe they could set up an agency a la Angel Investigations, presuming Sunnydale is big enough for that kind of agency, and also that the authorities will let them - do not forget that Sunnydale was built on the Hellmouth specifically for the demons’ sake. And that people _don’t talk_ about the things that go bump in the night. But if I squint, I can just see that it’s possible.
That is all well and good, but does not address the point I made above - The Slayer is important. What happens when she has a prophetic dream? Or when there’s a prophecy mentioning her? Or when a tenacious vampire like Spike decides to seek her out? Or when - like in Wtth - she’s in a situation where someone needs help and she’s the only one around with the strength and skill to help? Should she just walk on by? Her Slayerness *isn’t* a job, it’s who she is, no matter where she lives or what life she leads!
To quote Spiderman: “With great strength comes great responsibility.” Peter Parker didn’t ask for his powers, and neither did most super heroes we read about/watch. But they all decided to use their powers for good, rather than sit around whining that life’s unfair. Well here’s some news for all of you: Life is never fair! Just look at Ford in ‘Lie To Me’. His illness means that he has a shorter life expectancy than Buffy, and he seeks a way out - a way to quit. And here’s what she tells him:
“You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice. You're opting for mass murder here and nothing you say to me is gonna make that okay.”
Or look at Cordy: She was given visions by TPTB and tried to find any way out that she could. And yet with time, she came to value her gift, even though it was killing her. From ‘Disharmony’:
Cordy: “It's like - I don't know. I had these air pockets inside of me, and the work I'm doing, uh, we're doing, it's-it's like the pockets keep getting filled and I'm becoming me and...”
And when she had the option to quit (and not like the devil’s bargain Buffy sort-of had in ‘Normal Again’, but a brand new life with *everything* she ever wanted) what did she do? She took her visions right back because she didn’t want to see Angel suffer. Now you might call that stupidity. I call it bravery.
But to return to Buffy. Let’s stop talking about hypothetical scenarios, and think about where in canon you’d like her to quit (first giving her some sort of personality makeover, since the actual Buffy never quitted in the later seasons, but you’re apparently not too fussed about her behaving out of character, so that should work well):
S5? She tries to run away, and look how well that went. She can’t leave her ‘job’ behind, since Dawn’s safety is dependant upon it. Quitting is not an option.
S6? She’d like to quit, absolutely, she even tries a few times. But I think that she’s much too lost herself to even think about putting together some sort of team to fight evil on her behalf. The Scoobies aren’t capable on their own, especially not with Willow being unable to use magic. And even *if* she left, it could only be a temporary reprieve since The First Evil is waiting around the corner, ready to release mayhem. As the saying goes: All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing.
S7? As I said - First Evil! And as far as I can tell, it’s main aim re. Buffy was to make her quit. Look at ‘Empty Places’ and Buffy being all alone. (Thank goodness for Spike is all I can say.)
It’s simple: Buffy can’t quit. Even if she could physically walk away from her mission, the fact of who she is would force her back to fight, if nothing else then for her own life. And of course (as we have seen) her conscience would always bring her back. (I see the soul as giving people a conscience. Whether they act upon it, is something else. Thankfully Buffy does!)
Basically you need to go outside canon to argue this point, which leads us to fanfiction. I’m not saying this disparagingly, but just pointing out that fanfic is a much better way of delving into such topics. Some of the best thoughts about Buffy that I’ve ever read came from fanfic. All fanfic springs from one question: ‘What if?’ What if Dawn had died in The Gift - what would have happened? Or what if some incident or other made Buffy quit for good? Think about it, and work out where it would go. If you can make people believe your scenario, especially those prone to disagree on principle, then you might be onto something!
I think I'll end with a quote by Angel, one of my favourite from the entire 'verse and one that encapsulates a lot of why I love the heroes on both shows:
“...I did get time to think. About us, about the world. - Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. - It's harsh, and cruel. - But that's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world was what it should be, to show it what it can be.”
Angel, Deep Down.
Anyway, I write too much. Sorry about that - I hope I didn’t bore you.
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Finally I came across a fabulous quote by A. A. Gill (from his TV review). He's probably my favourite journalist - I don't always agree with him, but he's intelligent, writes exceedingly well and always has a compelling argument:
'Mind you, I did enjoy meeting [as in watching] the wild-food forager who would eat only roadkill, because farmed meat was unethical. So his protein intake was harvested by lorries and SUVs as they pounded motorways. The asinine dumbness that is excused by moral self-righteousness never ceases to amaze me.'
That last line just struck me as particularly apt re. those fans who think Buffy does not have a moral obligation to use her gifts, because they were forced on her!