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Lies My Parents Told Me.
That whole ‘I’m not going to write about S7 episodes’ is obviously not going to work at all. Especially when I get mini-epiphanies... and then go waffling about all-sorts. Why can't I ever be concise?
Anyway, as I was watching the beginning of LMPTM where Giles is complaining about the lack of books in the new library, I suddenly realised something. It was as though David Fury had hit me over the head with his not insubstantial hand and said: “It’s a metaphor! Me-ta-phor! Want me to spell it?”
This scene, which I always used to think of as a rather stupid joke, does as a matter of fact have 3 layers! Like so:
Anyway, as I was watching the beginning of LMPTM where Giles is complaining about the lack of books in the new library, I suddenly realised something. It was as though David Fury had hit me over the head with his not insubstantial hand and said: “It’s a metaphor! Me-ta-phor! Want me to spell it?”
This scene, which I always used to think of as a rather stupid joke, does as a matter of fact have 3 layers! Like so:
1) It’s a rather silly joke which definitely raises a chuckle.
2) Giles’ past life as a Watcher has been pretty much obliterated. But his past as a librarian hasn’t. Here - finally - is something that he can fix!
GILES: I can have my backup library sent from home in the meantime. It’s not much, but--
Contrast with: “...the truth is, Buffy was our plan. There is no back up.”
The backup that matters - the Council - can’t come to Sunnydale. Their knowledge and power is gone and Giles is adrift. So when an opportunity comes along where he can make difference he grasps at it fiercly. Books are what he does - books are his life. But those that matter - are lost.
3) It spells out the conflict between Buffy and Giles, old versus new:
GILES: Knowledge comes from crafted bindings and pages, Buffy, not ones and zeroes.
It’s a huge giant big metaphor, right under our noses. People complain that Giles is out of character in S7 - that he used to be happy to do things Buffy’s way. That is partly true, but he always kept a foot in the Watcher camp. When he was thinking of leaving (post S4 and again in S6) he made sure that his knowledge, his books, would be there for the Scoobies to draw on. Research has always been a huge part of the show, and Giles has always been the one with the knowledge, and the one with the ruthlessness. His job is to save the world at any cost - and he knows that Buffy did not agree to this when Dawn’s life was on the line. He knows that Buffy’s heart made killing Angel difficult, and it lead to Jenny’s murder. It’s a choice between head and heart, between looking back and looking forward, and at this point they’re conflicted.
~~~~~~~~~
The more I think about things, and the more I watch, the more I’m sure that The First’s plan re. Spike was to set him up against Wood. Consider to these bits of dialogue, almost every word of which is loaded with double meanings:
WOOD: A while back it slipped up, told Andrew "it wasn't time yet for Spike."
And the same night it came to visit you, Mr Wood. Funny co-incidence that! Except I think not.
~~~
WOOD: Yeah, if that trigger's still working, then the First must be waiting for just the right time to use it against us.
Oh, like say - now? When Buffy thinks things are quiet enough to send Willow away:
“I guess now is as good a time as we're likely to see for a while.”
~~~
WOOD: He's an instrument of evil.
And how about you? Doing The First's bidding... As Buffy said to Andrew back in ‘Potential’:
ANDREW: It's not fair. Spike just killed people, and he gets to go.
BUFFY: Spike didn't have free will and you did.
~~~
WOOD: Now he's gonna prove to be our undoing in this fight, Buffy's undoing, and she will never—never see it coming.
No, she really doesn’t see it coming, does she? Her new fighter and her watcher - people she trusts - conspiring behind her back. And Spike really does prove to be their undoing - creating a wedge between Buffy and Giles that doesn’t go away, ultimately leading to the major split in ‘Empty Places’. The First must have been laughing its head off.
~~~
The other thing is that both Wood and Giles mis-judge Spike. This might not be just their own fault, since Spike isn’t exactly the sharing type, but they make assumptions without trying to find out if they’re true. This is very bad.
WOOD: Animal like you... Never cared for anyone but yourself... No one else mattered... Just... all about the hunt...
We know - as does pretty much anyone he could have asked - that Spike has always cared about someone. It was always his defining characteristic, as we see from the flashbacks.
GILES: Angel left here because he knew how harmful your relationship with him was. Spike, on the other hand, lacks such self-awareness.
We know - and Buffy then tells him - that Spike is staying because she wants it. He offered to leave, but, unlike Angel in ‘Lovers Walk’, thought that Buffy knew what she was doing and did as she asked him.
The other point is of course that it is *stupid* to only give Spike 5 minutes to work through his issues, surrounded by people who dislike him. Why not wait a little? Why not see if Spike will co-operate? Maybe get out of his face a little? What’s the point of going to all that trouble of finding the prophylactic stone and then not see what it might do?
Of course this is Wood’s fear - that he’ll have no reason for his vengeance. So he pushes the matter when a solution seems imminent - and yet further away than ever. Exactly the sort of thing Buffy has been trying to fight against - she gives people chances, over and over and over again. The only sin in her book is giving up.
~~~
Everytime I watch the end of the scene in the cemetary, and Buffy’s “You’re stalling me...” I hear Angelus’ triumphant voice in my head: “And you fall for it every single time!”
Oh Giles. She’s not a little girl anymore, don’t treat her like one.
The point is of course Giles’ parting words: “This is how wars are won!”
Which ties in with what the Shadowmen tried to do - to make the Slayer do things their way:
RED HAT SHADOW MAN: This will make you ready for the fight.
BUFFY: By making me less human?
RED HAT SHADOW MAN: This is how it was then. How it must be now.
BLACK HAT SHADOW MAN: This is all there is.
There is a big old/new, male/female, head/heart, chosen/choosing divide in this season. Giles thinks in terms of power - ruthlessness - doing the job at any cost - like the Shadowmen. But Buffy knows that her power lies in her humanity - something the First Slayer told her and something Caleb (of all people) points out in ‘Dirty Girls’:
“The Slayer. The strongest and fastest and most aflame with that most precious invention of all mankind: the notion of goodness. The Slayer must indeed be powerful.”
The Shadowmen/Watchers in many ways echo The First: It’s not about right. It’s not about wrong. It’s about power.
But the Spirit guide told Buffy differently:
PRIMITIVE: You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire, blinding. That's why you pull away from it.
BUFFY: I'm full of love? I'm not losing it?
PRIMITIVE: Only if you reject it. Love is pain and the Slayer forges strength from pain.
It is re-formulated by Buffy in ‘First Date’: “You can’t beat evil by doing evil.” which is especially apt when facing The First - because anything evil is a win for the dark side, as LMPTM shows.
~~~
Finally, there is another thing here - the fact that not only do Giles and Wood misjudge Spike, they also misjudge Buffy. Neither thinks she has the stones, but Spike knows that she has a whole bunch of... stones:
"I know slayers. No matter how many people they've got around them, they fight alone. Life of the chosen one. The rest of us be damned."
He knows that Buffy would kill him in a heartbeat if need be. Knows that the ruthlessness Giles tries to find is there in far greater measure than he thinks. And Buffy pulls away from it as much as she can - but when things become inevitable, she can bring it. From ‘Selfless’:
Xander: You think we haven't seen all this before? The part where you just cut us all out. Just step away from everything human and act like you're the law. If you knew what I felt—
[...]
Buffy: It is always different! It's always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.
But Giles tries to spell it out to her, as though she hasn’t got it yet:
"So, you really do understand the difficult decisions you'll have to make? That anyone of us is expendable in this war? [...] That we cannot allow any threat that would jeopardize our chances at winning?"
And would you know it, but Buffy was listening and if she hadn’t learned the lesson before, this time she surely did:
“Spike is the strongest warrior we have. We are gonna need him if we're gonna come out of this thing alive. You try anything again, he'll kill you. More importantly - I'll let him. I have a mission to win this war, to save the world. I don't have time for vendettas. The mission is what matters.”
Well done Giles - it seems your final lesson sunk in. You got what you wanted. Happy now?
2) Giles’ past life as a Watcher has been pretty much obliterated. But his past as a librarian hasn’t. Here - finally - is something that he can fix!
GILES: I can have my backup library sent from home in the meantime. It’s not much, but--
Contrast with: “...the truth is, Buffy was our plan. There is no back up.”
The backup that matters - the Council - can’t come to Sunnydale. Their knowledge and power is gone and Giles is adrift. So when an opportunity comes along where he can make difference he grasps at it fiercly. Books are what he does - books are his life. But those that matter - are lost.
3) It spells out the conflict between Buffy and Giles, old versus new:
GILES: Knowledge comes from crafted bindings and pages, Buffy, not ones and zeroes.
It’s a huge giant big metaphor, right under our noses. People complain that Giles is out of character in S7 - that he used to be happy to do things Buffy’s way. That is partly true, but he always kept a foot in the Watcher camp. When he was thinking of leaving (post S4 and again in S6) he made sure that his knowledge, his books, would be there for the Scoobies to draw on. Research has always been a huge part of the show, and Giles has always been the one with the knowledge, and the one with the ruthlessness. His job is to save the world at any cost - and he knows that Buffy did not agree to this when Dawn’s life was on the line. He knows that Buffy’s heart made killing Angel difficult, and it lead to Jenny’s murder. It’s a choice between head and heart, between looking back and looking forward, and at this point they’re conflicted.
~~~~~~~~~
The more I think about things, and the more I watch, the more I’m sure that The First’s plan re. Spike was to set him up against Wood. Consider to these bits of dialogue, almost every word of which is loaded with double meanings:
WOOD: A while back it slipped up, told Andrew "it wasn't time yet for Spike."
And the same night it came to visit you, Mr Wood. Funny co-incidence that! Except I think not.
~~~
WOOD: Yeah, if that trigger's still working, then the First must be waiting for just the right time to use it against us.
Oh, like say - now? When Buffy thinks things are quiet enough to send Willow away:
“I guess now is as good a time as we're likely to see for a while.”
~~~
WOOD: He's an instrument of evil.
And how about you? Doing The First's bidding... As Buffy said to Andrew back in ‘Potential’:
ANDREW: It's not fair. Spike just killed people, and he gets to go.
BUFFY: Spike didn't have free will and you did.
~~~
WOOD: Now he's gonna prove to be our undoing in this fight, Buffy's undoing, and she will never—never see it coming.
No, she really doesn’t see it coming, does she? Her new fighter and her watcher - people she trusts - conspiring behind her back. And Spike really does prove to be their undoing - creating a wedge between Buffy and Giles that doesn’t go away, ultimately leading to the major split in ‘Empty Places’. The First must have been laughing its head off.
~~~
The other thing is that both Wood and Giles mis-judge Spike. This might not be just their own fault, since Spike isn’t exactly the sharing type, but they make assumptions without trying to find out if they’re true. This is very bad.
WOOD: Animal like you... Never cared for anyone but yourself... No one else mattered... Just... all about the hunt...
We know - as does pretty much anyone he could have asked - that Spike has always cared about someone. It was always his defining characteristic, as we see from the flashbacks.
GILES: Angel left here because he knew how harmful your relationship with him was. Spike, on the other hand, lacks such self-awareness.
We know - and Buffy then tells him - that Spike is staying because she wants it. He offered to leave, but, unlike Angel in ‘Lovers Walk’, thought that Buffy knew what she was doing and did as she asked him.
The other point is of course that it is *stupid* to only give Spike 5 minutes to work through his issues, surrounded by people who dislike him. Why not wait a little? Why not see if Spike will co-operate? Maybe get out of his face a little? What’s the point of going to all that trouble of finding the prophylactic stone and then not see what it might do?
Of course this is Wood’s fear - that he’ll have no reason for his vengeance. So he pushes the matter when a solution seems imminent - and yet further away than ever. Exactly the sort of thing Buffy has been trying to fight against - she gives people chances, over and over and over again. The only sin in her book is giving up.
~~~
Everytime I watch the end of the scene in the cemetary, and Buffy’s “You’re stalling me...” I hear Angelus’ triumphant voice in my head: “And you fall for it every single time!”
Oh Giles. She’s not a little girl anymore, don’t treat her like one.
The point is of course Giles’ parting words: “This is how wars are won!”
Which ties in with what the Shadowmen tried to do - to make the Slayer do things their way:
RED HAT SHADOW MAN: This will make you ready for the fight.
BUFFY: By making me less human?
RED HAT SHADOW MAN: This is how it was then. How it must be now.
BLACK HAT SHADOW MAN: This is all there is.
There is a big old/new, male/female, head/heart, chosen/choosing divide in this season. Giles thinks in terms of power - ruthlessness - doing the job at any cost - like the Shadowmen. But Buffy knows that her power lies in her humanity - something the First Slayer told her and something Caleb (of all people) points out in ‘Dirty Girls’:
“The Slayer. The strongest and fastest and most aflame with that most precious invention of all mankind: the notion of goodness. The Slayer must indeed be powerful.”
The Shadowmen/Watchers in many ways echo The First: It’s not about right. It’s not about wrong. It’s about power.
But the Spirit guide told Buffy differently:
PRIMITIVE: You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire, blinding. That's why you pull away from it.
BUFFY: I'm full of love? I'm not losing it?
PRIMITIVE: Only if you reject it. Love is pain and the Slayer forges strength from pain.
It is re-formulated by Buffy in ‘First Date’: “You can’t beat evil by doing evil.” which is especially apt when facing The First - because anything evil is a win for the dark side, as LMPTM shows.
~~~
Finally, there is another thing here - the fact that not only do Giles and Wood misjudge Spike, they also misjudge Buffy. Neither thinks she has the stones, but Spike knows that she has a whole bunch of... stones:
"I know slayers. No matter how many people they've got around them, they fight alone. Life of the chosen one. The rest of us be damned."
He knows that Buffy would kill him in a heartbeat if need be. Knows that the ruthlessness Giles tries to find is there in far greater measure than he thinks. And Buffy pulls away from it as much as she can - but when things become inevitable, she can bring it. From ‘Selfless’:
Xander: You think we haven't seen all this before? The part where you just cut us all out. Just step away from everything human and act like you're the law. If you knew what I felt—
[...]
Buffy: It is always different! It's always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.
But Giles tries to spell it out to her, as though she hasn’t got it yet:
"So, you really do understand the difficult decisions you'll have to make? That anyone of us is expendable in this war? [...] That we cannot allow any threat that would jeopardize our chances at winning?"
And would you know it, but Buffy was listening and if she hadn’t learned the lesson before, this time she surely did:
“Spike is the strongest warrior we have. We are gonna need him if we're gonna come out of this thing alive. You try anything again, he'll kill you. More importantly - I'll let him. I have a mission to win this war, to save the world. I don't have time for vendettas. The mission is what matters.”
Well done Giles - it seems your final lesson sunk in. You got what you wanted. Happy now?
~~~~~~
Giles: What do you want me to say?
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.
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I've never really got a handle on what the First's plan was but that really makes sense.
Giles thinks in terms of power - ruthlessness - doing the job at any cost - like the Shadowmen.
At one point I really thought that Season 7 would be about a conflict between Buffy and Giles, and in some ways I think it was, but less obviously than I was anticipating.
Really fascinating essay.
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Thanks. :) It always dtruck me as slightly odd that people went on and on about how dangerous Spike was. Hello? Giant Ubervamp army? Caleb? It's not like The First doesn't have enough minions. But using Spike to sow discord? Very much FE's style.
less obviously than I was anticipating.
Yes, it's not so much Giles himself, as his way of doing things. He's almost just a symbol at this point.
Really fascinating essay.
I aim to please. ;)
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Dammit woman! I was quite happy dismissing that scene as a rather low-grade class of continuity porn (basically reprising Giles' outburst in I Robot - You Jane, and now you've gone and shown me it has layers and metaphors and stuff!
;)
Although in the original, those scenes were part of setting up the relationship between Giles and Jenny. Hmm. Surely they're not setting out to make the same connection between Giles and Wood now?
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Hehehehehehe! Welcome to LJ! ;) And thanks for reminding me of the Giles/Jenny scene from IRYJ. I was trying to remember what ep it was in!
Surely they're not setting out to make the same connection between Giles and Wood now?
Heeeeeeeee! Although it would be Buffy and Giles, since she was the one he was arguing with... No, better just leave it.
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::hugs::
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::hugs back::
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I used to think it was out of character before but that was because I hated how the strong relationship between Buffy and Giles was ruined.
But thinking about it, it wasn't out of character at all. Giles is a practical man. He'll do anything to save the world, he had implied killing *Dawn* in S5 to save the world. Plus The First had rambled about using Spike when his time comes (you can see Giles' reaction to this info in First Date) it is in character, even when it was wrong to go behind Buffy's back like that.
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Which is where the 'practical' bit comes in - trying to do what Buffy can't.
Also, as OBS put it:
Wood is absolutely brilliant as the seducer, ringing all of Giles' Pavlov's bells.
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I need to stop typing befor the coffee kicks in!
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That is very true. Also when you're an adult your choices have much farther reaching consequences.
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So glad you are doing some of Season 7 after all.
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Well Darcy and I are now in S4... I hope you can sneak some time!
Anyway, v. glad you're enjoying my posts. :)
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I’ve always thought this and been slightly confused when people complain that the First’s ability to sow discontent and be a psychological rather than a physical threat was under used. They could have tried to make every other episode a CWDP but it would have worn thin pretty quickly. Striking at Buffy indirectly through those most vulnerable to its devices such as Chloe and Wood was a lot more effective and ultimately more revealing. That scene where Wood tempts Giles for instance is all the more powerful because Wood is a flesh and blood person with his own, very understandable intentions. And he manages to hit every button Giles has almost inadvertently. The sympathy for a fellow Watcher and victim of the long war - if Buffy hadn’t been resurrected Dawn would have been in the same position as Wood. The danger to Buffy –I assume Giles knows about the rape attempt. And last but not least the greater good.
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Anyway, I see you're keeping up your end v. well in the AOQ thread!
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Giles character in S7 is the one thing that I feel so very strongly about and you really show it right here. Pull it out of the dialogue and it's right there. The split has been there all along, it's just widened over time.
And I'm rushing out the door right now or I'd comment further but I just wanted to thank you for posting this. Keep going with those mini-epiphanies! ;)
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Squee! :)
The split has been there all along, it's just widened over time.
Exactly. And - as OBS put it - Wood manages to hit all of Giles' Pavlov's Bells!
Anyway, v. pleased that you liked it. :)
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My pleasure! I can defend pretty much any ep (except AYW, sadly), and probably have by now!
Very glad you liked my thoughts. :)
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But ultimately, it does go away, in "Chosen".
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WOOD: A while back it slipped up, told Andrew "it wasn't time yet for Spike."
And the same night it came to visit you, Mr Wood. Funny co-incidence that! Except I think not.
WOOD: Now he's gonna prove to be our undoing in this fight, Buffy's undoing, and she will never—never see it coming.
No, she really doesn’t see it coming, does she? Her new fighter and her watcher - people she trusts - conspiring behind her back. And Spike really does prove to be their undoing - creating a wedge between Buffy and Giles that doesn’t go away, ultimately leading to the major split in ‘Empty Places’. The First must have been laughing its head off.
~~~
The other thing is that both Wood and Giles mis-judge Spike. This might not be just their own fault, since Spike isn’t exactly the sharing type, but they make assumptions without trying to find out if they’re true. This is very bad.
Hmmm... I think you're definitely on to something there.We know - and Buffy then tells him - that Spike is staying because she wants it. He offered to leave, but, unlike Angel in ‘Lovers Walk’, thought that Buffy knew what she was doing and did as she asked him.
The other point is of course that it is *stupid* to only give Spike 5 minutes to work through his issues, surrounded by people who dislike him. Why not wait a little? Why not see if Spike will co-operate? Maybe get out of his face a little? What’s the point of going to all that trouble of finding the prophylactic stone and then not see what it might do?
Of course this is Wood’s fear - that he’ll have no reason for his vengeance. So he pushes the matter when a solution seems imminent - and yet further away than ever. Exactly the sort of thing Buffy has been trying to fight against - she gives people chances, over and over and over again. The only sin in her book is giving up.
IMO the problem with both of them is that they've already thought out what needs to be done in their heads and they just don't want to deviate from the plan. Both of them are so convinced that they know what's best for everyone, especially Buffy, that they don't care what her input or thoughts might be. She might be The Slayer but in both of their minds she's just a little girl, and a little girl who has boyfriend issues.
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Yes, that's very true. Although Buffy really doesn't give them reason to doubt that. Because she's not about to explain exactly what Spike means to her, or why.
Giles goes to a lot of trouble to get the prophylactic stone, but it's also a last resort. He can now say "We've done *everything* and have got nowhere. The only option left is killing him." Except then Buffy would argue and not listen... Oh it's easy to see why Giles acts the way he does.
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::nods vigorously:: It's like the show is a 3-D picture - when you look deeply, new vistas appear out of the blue (as my continued waffling can attest to...).
So glad you liked my post, and I miss them too! *sigh*
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But for you here's a bit from my 'Bring On The Night'/'Showtime' post:
I think as much as anything, in S7 Giles needs Buffy to be able to cope, because she is the world's last hope. Buffy sees this, but wants him to be the one for her to depend on. But he’s not - he’s the one who’ll send her out to fight, and possibly die. That’s the job of a Watcher.
GILES: We could make plans as we always do, but the truth is, Buffy was our plan. There is no back up.
This line I think more than any other is the key to Giles in S7. Buffy is the world’s only hope, and although he has great faith in her (as well as a lot of affection), he is also far too aware of her limits and (what he perceives as) her weaknesses. The thing is, he is pretty much useless, and he knows it. Which of course is something else that ties back to the beginning:
Buffy: Why don't you kill 'em?
Giles: I-I'm a Watcher, I-I haven't the skill...
Buffy: Oh, come on, stake through the heart, a little sunlight... It's like falling off a log.
Giles: A, a Slayer slays, a Watcher...
Buffy: ...watches?
Giles: Yes. No! He, he trains her, he, he, he prepares her...
He cannot research The First, because there is next to nothing written about it. He cannot train Buffy further, or prepare her more than she already is. He also knows that his love for her can be used as a weapon, and could be fatal if so employed. This is why I think he distances himself so very sharply, knowing that he might have to do anything, and that love might be a hindrance:
Quentin: Your affection for your charge has rendered you incapable of clear and impartial judgment. You have a father's love for the child, and that is useless to the cause.
Giles is The Council now, and although he might have disliked them intensely, and not trusted their judgment or methods, he believes in the cause. As mariposas said in one of the AOQ threads: The Council was made for war, and it has to be viewed in that light.
Wesley: You're the one who said take the fight to the Mayor. You were right. This is the town's best hope of survival. It's your chance to get out.
Buffy: You think I care about that? Are you made of human parts?
Giles: Alright! Let's deal with this rationally.
Buffy: Why are you taking his side?
Giles and Wesley came together here, briefly, in their shared belief of always doing what’s best for the majority. It was only a moment, but it came back in The Gift, and caused a huge rift between Buffy and Giles, one I think he’s more aware of than ever in S7:
GILES: If the ritual starts, then every living creature in this and every other dimension imaginable will suffer unbearable torment and death ... including Dawn.
BUFFY: Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her.
GILES: You'll fail. You'll die. We all will.
BUFFY: I'm sorry.
[...]
GILES: But I've sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing ... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to.
S7 has that moment stretched out over most of a season. Giles is worried that Buffy will let her heart rule over her head - and that because of that she’ll fail. And die. And doom them all. It’s not nice, but it’s not out of character.
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The only sin in her book is giving up
I'm not sure if I agree or disagree that it's the only one, I'd have to think about it, but I do agree it's the central one for her. Which is probably why she hates herself so much in S6.
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Yes, that's probably a better way of putting it. And one of the keys to S6.
Thanks for reading. :)
... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
I belong to "bitter Spuffies" group -- that is, I'm still traumatized by the Buffy/Angel kiss and the amulet scene... I keep trying to be brave-little-toaster about it, but I still have this nasty sinking feeling about one of the many possible meanings of that "Chosen" title... And not one of the possible nicer interpretations either.
Still, I always read positive Spuffy interpretations. I love them. And I always hope they'll convince me in the end... although I do always end up feeling precisely like Buffy in that Buffy/Giles exchange at the end of "Lie to me."
So... Here's the spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question. When you looked at this scene you quoted:
... did you ever think, even just for a microsecond, that that may be (at least in part) what led her to send Angel away and give (or allow an upset, defeated Spike to take) the amulet in the end?
Trust me, it's been years since the series finale and I still can't make head or tales with it... The only reasonable explanation I can find is through the nastier, more cynical of that word, "Chosen"...
But then again, I am told I am a cynic pretty much every day. So there, I keep hoping I'm wrong, even though deep down I think I'm right. Does this make any sense? :-)
PS -- I hope I'm not upsetting anybody with this... (and if I am, please feel free to delete this message, pronto!)
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
p.s. I was also traumatized and bitter, so much so that I turned to slash. *lol*
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
Re: ... Spoilsport, devil's advocate-style question...
no subject
Brilliant stuff. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts :)
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Wonderful, isn't it?
Anyway, very glad that you liked my post, esp since I am incapable of shutting up! :)
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Everytime I watch the end of the scene in the cemetary, and Buffy’s “You’re stalling me...” I hear Angelus’ triumphant voice in my head: “And you fall for it every single time!”
Wow! The absolute betrayal of it! OUCH!
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I know. Buffy's always been the trusting type! Of course Giles isn't being evil, he's just trying to help in his own misguided way, which is what makes it so much more difficult.
But the way she suddenly takes off running - terrified of what she will find when she reaches her destination - my heart breaks.
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The First's plan was to muck up the balance between good and evil . . . in favor of the latter. And it thought it could achieve this through Buffy and Spike.
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And re. the First Evil, then I actually wrote a whole essay on how I saw it. :)