Revisiting Buffy
Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to find the essays by shadowkat67on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs/index.html
I have to thank S’kat for sharing the link to her BtVS essays, they are very insightful and although I’ve only started reading I have already had a mini-epiphany. I started with Restless which is one of my all time favorite episodes, Season 4 being my all time favorite season. I found the magic vs Sci-fi theme of S4 to be very satisfying and interesting (me being a totally geek who finds both genre fun and worthwhile).
The first episodes where Buffy deals with the issues of The Freshman over-whelm and a bad dorm roommate were experiences I will never forget (and what does that say about me? LOL). Also the way dear friends tend to drift away at this time at life. People growing up and changing so quickly, it is an exciting time of scary transition, and I really felt that the writers handled it well. Plus, evil secret government project, always suits my conspiracy theories about the role of the Gov’t in our lives!
I think I was also attracted to starting with Restless because of the cool way you could click onto each sleeping Scoobie member to get to the essay on their portion of the episode.
In Joss Whedon’s commentary on Restless, one of the best commentaries he has ever done (right up there with The Body and Objects in Space IMO), he said that the cheeseman was meaningless. Which I think it clearly not the case, but like an artist who refuses to explain their work (if you can’t see it, then it isn’t there for you, there is no purpose served in explaining what you cannot see) I think Joss felt that he would leave it unexplained. Obviously ‘cheese’ refers to Buffy herself: at the beginning of the season when Riley wants help from Willow on what Buffy likes, all he learns is that she likes cheese. WTF? What possible help could that be? Telling him what music she likes, or what movies she enjoys, would give them a topic of conversation. But cheese? No so much. I felt that Buffy’s love of cheese stemmed back to her brief time (S2 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered) as a rat: “I remember ... a sudden need for cheese”. But in reading S’kat’s essays (the series of essays about Restless) I had the thought that the cheese doesn’t refer to Buffy: Buffy IS the cheese. In Willow’s dream we find her desire to define her own life, and gain some control over her life, but Buffy has the control and the cheese is the only thing that has order in the chaos. In Xander’s dream he is afraid of what it means to become an adult (and become like his Father) and he learns that the cheese/Buffy cannot protect him in this like she has in other situations. Gile’s wants to believe that ‘I wear the cheese, it does not wear me’ but in reality he is just an appendage on the duck’s ass (Anya’s joke told in Gile’s dream), and Buffy no longer needs him. In Buffy’s dream she is afraid of losing her friends, and becoming the lone warrior the First Slayer was. The cheeseman doesn’t speak, and doesn’t show up until the First Slayer finally speaks and says “we are alone”. This is an on-going theme throughout Buffy, that she always finds that like The Farmer in the Dell: “The Cheese Stands Alone”.
http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs/index.html
I have to thank S’kat for sharing the link to her BtVS essays, they are very insightful and although I’ve only started reading I have already had a mini-epiphany. I started with Restless which is one of my all time favorite episodes, Season 4 being my all time favorite season. I found the magic vs Sci-fi theme of S4 to be very satisfying and interesting (me being a totally geek who finds both genre fun and worthwhile).
The first episodes where Buffy deals with the issues of The Freshman over-whelm and a bad dorm roommate were experiences I will never forget (and what does that say about me? LOL). Also the way dear friends tend to drift away at this time at life. People growing up and changing so quickly, it is an exciting time of scary transition, and I really felt that the writers handled it well. Plus, evil secret government project, always suits my conspiracy theories about the role of the Gov’t in our lives!
I think I was also attracted to starting with Restless because of the cool way you could click onto each sleeping Scoobie member to get to the essay on their portion of the episode.
In Joss Whedon’s commentary on Restless, one of the best commentaries he has ever done (right up there with The Body and Objects in Space IMO), he said that the cheeseman was meaningless. Which I think it clearly not the case, but like an artist who refuses to explain their work (if you can’t see it, then it isn’t there for you, there is no purpose served in explaining what you cannot see) I think Joss felt that he would leave it unexplained. Obviously ‘cheese’ refers to Buffy herself: at the beginning of the season when Riley wants help from Willow on what Buffy likes, all he learns is that she likes cheese. WTF? What possible help could that be? Telling him what music she likes, or what movies she enjoys, would give them a topic of conversation. But cheese? No so much. I felt that Buffy’s love of cheese stemmed back to her brief time (S2 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered) as a rat: “I remember ... a sudden need for cheese”. But in reading S’kat’s essays (the series of essays about Restless) I had the thought that the cheese doesn’t refer to Buffy: Buffy IS the cheese. In Willow’s dream we find her desire to define her own life, and gain some control over her life, but Buffy has the control and the cheese is the only thing that has order in the chaos. In Xander’s dream he is afraid of what it means to become an adult (and become like his Father) and he learns that the cheese/Buffy cannot protect him in this like she has in other situations. Gile’s wants to believe that ‘I wear the cheese, it does not wear me’ but in reality he is just an appendage on the duck’s ass (Anya’s joke told in Gile’s dream), and Buffy no longer needs him. In Buffy’s dream she is afraid of losing her friends, and becoming the lone warrior the First Slayer was. The cheeseman doesn’t speak, and doesn’t show up until the First Slayer finally speaks and says “we are alone”. This is an on-going theme throughout Buffy, that she always finds that like The Farmer in the Dell: “The Cheese Stands Alone”.