BtVS: iconoclasm and community

[heresluck]

I haven't posted anything about BtVS for a while, largely because I tend to think about its weekly installments less as self-contained episodes and more in terms of how they fit into the big picture of the show. And I haven't wanted to do that lately because, getting so near the end, I wanted to just wait for the end to start collecting my thoughts

Comments

[just_eunice]

Marry me? I hereby declare myself forever and always your bitch. I'm printing this out and sleeping with it under my pillow.

[heresluck]

Well, I'm anti-marriage, but how can I refuse such a proposal? Maybe we can compromise: how about a torrid affair?

[drdawn]

I love what you are saying and where you are going.

Quick thought: Last night sisabet was vidding the First Slayer in chains from "Restless" then Buffy chained to Earth in "Get it Done" Seeing that together really hit me, how the first slayer had no choice, no say. Buffy breaking those chains and fighting that system did something, I think, to make it possible to unleash and share the power later.

When I first saw "Restless" I thought the first slayer was chained up because she was bad--like Hannibal Lector--a really bad thing. But no, she was just a kid, 14 or 15, that they chained and demonized.

[heresluck]

Buffy breaking those chains and fighting that system did something, I think, to make it possible to unleash and share the power later.

This makes a lot of sense to me. The First Slayer has no choice but to play by the proto-Watchers' rules: "We are alone." When Buffy first meets the First Slayer, she doesn't understand what's behind that claim; she sees herself in opposition to the First Slayer. "Get It Done" lets Buffy -- and us -- see the roots of that claim; Buffy is able to reject, not the power itself, but male determination and control of that power: to break the chains, both literally and metaphorically.

Cool.

[renenet]

My "Graduation Day" icon (that I made on the day of the finale) and I *heart* you and your notes towards a longer and more in-depth essay. *heart*!!!

[heresluck]

I do love that icon.

[laurashapiro]

This is beautiful stuff. I can't wait to see how you develop it. I love the insight on S4-6 as Buffy trying on various institutions and power structures to replace the ones she "graduated from" at the end of S3. And yes, I agree that The Initiative is worth a chapter of its own -- the show does a wonderful thing in one of the episodes, crosscutting between the Scoobs analyzing ancient texts looking for mystical clues and demon motivations, and the Initiative in one of their scientific, hierarchical, military briefings.

I touched on some of the things you're saying here in my own analysis of "Chosen". I'd love to talk to you further about it.

[heresluck]

Let's definitely talk! Your analysis is one of the ones I've been wanting to go back to; it's just been a crazy week. I'll re-read later today and maybe find a starting point...

Finally Getting Caught Up!

[sisabet]

I just read this and I really, really *heart* you for being able to say this so clearly. Also - now I understand where some of the amazingly perceptive things Dawn was commenting on while I was deep in my vid hole for "Peacekeeper" came from - I wondered how she came up with the whole "institutions and structures" stuff from, cause it did not seem like her at all.

Also - where is the Faith vid? I need it.

[heresluck]

I'm so glad you liked it! (Also, I'm very flattered and amused as all get-out that Dawn used language from my analysis when giving you vid comments.)

The Faith vid has been taking a back seat to dissertation stuff in the last few days, but now my brain is full and I need to decompress anyway. I'm hoping to have the vid to you tonight. Don't hold your breath, though.