Comments | stormwreath: (Meta) Power and Moral Certainty

stormwreath

(Meta) Power and Moral Certainty - Buffy in late Season 8

Jan 17, 2012 14:52

In the light of the latest revelations about Buffy in Season 9, I've been re-visiting my thoughts about the end of Season 8, and specifically the Retreat arc and when Buffy was Chosen by the Twilight prophecy to be the creatrix of a new universe. This led me to thoughts about power, parenthood, and Buffy's moral certainty - specifically that ( Read more... )

season 9, meta, season 8, buffy

Comments 12

ceciliaj January 17 2012, 15:56:52 UTC

Lovely! This is just gorgeous, and it really makes me excited for the pregnancy arc. The Retreat arc was so, well, on the one hand totally awesome, on the other hand, ickily culturally appropriative, so...I think the best response is probably to do what you do here, and try to take the text at its word where we can, focusing on the good ideas.

stormwreath January 17 2012, 17:29:04 UTC

Thank you! It was interesting that the conclusion I reached at the end weren't necessarily the ones I started out with, either. :)

Although I tend to think that cultural appropriation is a good thing, not a bad thing; so I had no problem with 'Retreat' on that score...

ceciliaj January 17 2012, 17:34:22 UTC

Although I tend to think that cultural appropriation is a good thing, not a bad thing; so I had no problem with 'Retreat' on that score...

Do you mean that like it sounds? I think that it is great to draw from many sources in order to create a complex storyworld, but I also think that cultural appropriation has a really ugly history that has more often than not prevented the best stories from being told by those who are most knowledgeable, so...just curious :).

stormwreath January 17 2012, 17:59:11 UTC

It seems to me that "cultural appropriation" is usually touted as a bad thing when it's a small oppressed group lamenting that it has nothing to call its own, not even its stories or artefacts. Which is bad, yes; but surely it's the oppression that's the bad thing? The appropriation is merely a symptom. Or when cultural elements are used in a mocking or inappropriate or disrespectful fashion; but again, the problem there isn't cultural appropriation, it's racism ( ... )

Thread 7

helios_knight January 17 2012, 16:19:53 UTC

Very good theory, it paints the whole Twilight saga in a new light for me.

You also made me think of the episode "Normal Again". In both stories Buffy is in this wonderful new world (Twilight and with both of her parents respectively) but she gives up her own happiness to do what is right. In both she leaves the ideal world behind to save her friends reaffirming them as her true family.

stormwreath January 17 2012, 17:33:36 UTC

Thanks! I do think that Season 8 painted Buffy in a much less negative light than a lot of people claim. And 'normal Again' is a good comparison: thinking about it, they even both had the same "unusually bright, plain white" feeling to the two unreal worlds.

mikeda January 17 2012, 23:23:48 UTC

I tend to see the Twilight-verse as being more the equivalent of Buffy's mindscape in "The Weight of the World".

Of course my one sentence summary of S8 IS "Season 5 writ large".

singer_shaper January 18 2012, 05:21:31 UTC

Whenever I read your meta, I'm pleasantly surprised by the unity you find in the Buffyverse. I have no idea whether this can be attributed to intentional planning on the writers' part, but I'm definitely impressed by what you've teased out from it. Keep up the great work!

stormwreath January 18 2012, 11:25:05 UTC

Thnks!

My general theory about things like that - based on my own writing experience - is that often a writer will know that certain things just *feel* right or seem to go together, without necessarily being able to articulate why. Literary analysis can then lay out the themes and trace the connections, and make explicit what was only implicit in the author's imagination.

Or something like that. :)