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More re-watch!
We actually watched 'The Puppet Show' only a few weeks ago, so skipped straight to 'Nightmares'. Don't have a lot to say about 'The Puppet Show' - I love the episode very much and totally fell for the mis-direction the first time, but can't find much to say. Now 'Nightmares' is different - my mind was working in overdrive or something!
First off, 'Nightmares' is one of the most overtly 'Well, these things happen when you're on a Hellmouth' episodes - it's the only explanation ever given, but really it doesn't matter because it's a fascinating look into the minds of our heroes...
We start off with Buffy's nightmare of The Master killing her, and later we watch him telling The Annointed One that Fear is the most powerful force in the human world. Of course he is wrong - and this actually ties in with S7 and The First's ways of using fear to undermine The good Guys. The Master dismisses love and hate in the same breath (yes I know! No breath! *spork*) before going on to talk about his irrational fear of crosses... if he had thought but a little deeper, he would see that the cross is the ultimate expression of love! His fear is *not* confounding, but a response to a thing more powerful than himself - as he says: "We are defined by the things we fear".
Anyway, I really don't have time to go that deeply into all of it. I liked how the spider thing was not because Wendell was afraid of spiders, but because his brother carelessly let all his pet spiders die, and he felt guilty over their death. That's a very complex nightmare!
There are two sorts of nightmares here (talking about The Scoobies - although Cordelia was hilarious). Those that are overcome and those that will come true later.
ETA: OK, had to include Cordelia, because of the Teen!Cordy we see in 'Spine The Bottle':
Cordelia: (touches her short hairstyle) "Oh, God. Oh, God. My hair. My hair." (crying) "The government gave me bad hair."
Sorry, but that never stops being funny... *g*
Xander battles his nightmare straight on and wins. It is part of his growth and maturing and it's very satifying to watch.
Willow's stage fright is not overcome here (although it carries through wonderfully from the last scene of 'The Puppet Show'), but at some point later on - in S4 she takes drama classes. In 'Restless' of course her dream comes very close to this episode, but I don't think it's actually stage fright as such - but a fear of still being the Willow who had stage fright. Of not having grown or matured at all.
Giles... ah Giles. First he loses his ability to read (and I guess in S6 he loses his ability to read the problems), and then his greatest nightmare comes true:
Xander: "Whose nightmare is this?"
Giles looks at a gravestone that reads: Buffy Summers 1981 - 1997.
Giles: "It's mine."
He then has a beautiful speech, each word of which will be true by the end of 'The Gift':
Giles: "I've failed... in my duty to protect you. I should have been more c... cautious. Taken more time to train you. But you were so gifted. And the evil was so great. I'm sorry..."
Poor Giles...
But of course the really interesting bits are what happens to Buffy. As Giles puts it:
"Buffy doesn't know this is happening. And given the sort of thing that she tends to dream about, it's imperative that we find her."
Every single thing that happen to Buffy will be repeated in S6, in one way or another.
First there is the history test that she hasn't studied for, complete with clock that goes superfast. Both these things will happen in 'Life Serial', when first she feels completely overwhelmed in Willow's class and then time starts going haywire thanks to 'exploding lint'.
Then her father tells her that he doesn't like how she turned out and wants to stop seeing her. Of course by S6 she has long since lost touch with her real father and her mother has died, but in S6 even her surrogate father, Giles, leaves her 'to grow up'.
After that we have Buffy's most frightening nightmare. At first it plays out just like her dream, only this time The Master doesn't bite her:
The Master: "[...] Come on, Slayer! What are you afraid of?"
He growls and bares his teeth, but doesn't bite. He throws her into the coffin at the bottom of the grave, and the lid slams shut.
Buffy: "No! Help me!"
Master: "How 'bout being buried alive?"
This nightmare comes true in the most horribly real way in 'Bargaining', and I'm sure Buffy was incredibly traumatised by it.
Lastly, she becomes a vampire although she still carries out her Slayer duties - so obviously is still herself on some level.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frenchani has written a very interesting Essay on how Buffy comes back as a metaphorical vampire in S6 - certainly she sees herself as a monster in her behaviour towards Spike...
Now after all that serious stuff, at the end of the episode they reference 'The Wizard of Oz' *and* 'Scoobie Doo' within about a minute, which is quite something! And 'The Ugly Man' is one of the most grotesque and actually frightening monsters they've ever done, IMO.
I think that's all... ::runs off to take care of children::
Nifty icon byindulging_breck.
First off, 'Nightmares' is one of the most overtly 'Well, these things happen when you're on a Hellmouth' episodes - it's the only explanation ever given, but really it doesn't matter because it's a fascinating look into the minds of our heroes...
We start off with Buffy's nightmare of The Master killing her, and later we watch him telling The Annointed One that Fear is the most powerful force in the human world. Of course he is wrong - and this actually ties in with S7 and The First's ways of using fear to undermine The good Guys. The Master dismisses love and hate in the same breath (yes I know! No breath! *spork*) before going on to talk about his irrational fear of crosses... if he had thought but a little deeper, he would see that the cross is the ultimate expression of love! His fear is *not* confounding, but a response to a thing more powerful than himself - as he says: "We are defined by the things we fear".
Anyway, I really don't have time to go that deeply into all of it. I liked how the spider thing was not because Wendell was afraid of spiders, but because his brother carelessly let all his pet spiders die, and he felt guilty over their death. That's a very complex nightmare!
There are two sorts of nightmares here (talking about The Scoobies - although Cordelia was hilarious). Those that are overcome and those that will come true later.
ETA: OK, had to include Cordelia, because of the Teen!Cordy we see in 'Spine The Bottle':
Cordelia: (touches her short hairstyle) "Oh, God. Oh, God. My hair. My hair." (crying) "The government gave me bad hair."
Sorry, but that never stops being funny... *g*
Xander battles his nightmare straight on and wins. It is part of his growth and maturing and it's very satifying to watch.
Willow's stage fright is not overcome here (although it carries through wonderfully from the last scene of 'The Puppet Show'), but at some point later on - in S4 she takes drama classes. In 'Restless' of course her dream comes very close to this episode, but I don't think it's actually stage fright as such - but a fear of still being the Willow who had stage fright. Of not having grown or matured at all.
Giles... ah Giles. First he loses his ability to read (and I guess in S6 he loses his ability to read the problems), and then his greatest nightmare comes true:
Xander: "Whose nightmare is this?"
Giles looks at a gravestone that reads: Buffy Summers 1981 - 1997.
Giles: "It's mine."
He then has a beautiful speech, each word of which will be true by the end of 'The Gift':
Giles: "I've failed... in my duty to protect you. I should have been more c... cautious. Taken more time to train you. But you were so gifted. And the evil was so great. I'm sorry..."
Poor Giles...
But of course the really interesting bits are what happens to Buffy. As Giles puts it:
"Buffy doesn't know this is happening. And given the sort of thing that she tends to dream about, it's imperative that we find her."
Every single thing that happen to Buffy will be repeated in S6, in one way or another.
First there is the history test that she hasn't studied for, complete with clock that goes superfast. Both these things will happen in 'Life Serial', when first she feels completely overwhelmed in Willow's class and then time starts going haywire thanks to 'exploding lint'.
Then her father tells her that he doesn't like how she turned out and wants to stop seeing her. Of course by S6 she has long since lost touch with her real father and her mother has died, but in S6 even her surrogate father, Giles, leaves her 'to grow up'.
After that we have Buffy's most frightening nightmare. At first it plays out just like her dream, only this time The Master doesn't bite her:
The Master: "[...] Come on, Slayer! What are you afraid of?"
He growls and bares his teeth, but doesn't bite. He throws her into the coffin at the bottom of the grave, and the lid slams shut.
Buffy: "No! Help me!"
Master: "How 'bout being buried alive?"
This nightmare comes true in the most horribly real way in 'Bargaining', and I'm sure Buffy was incredibly traumatised by it.
Lastly, she becomes a vampire although she still carries out her Slayer duties - so obviously is still herself on some level.
frenchani has written a very interesting Essay on how Buffy comes back as a metaphorical vampire in S6 - certainly she sees herself as a monster in her behaviour towards Spike... Now after all that serious stuff, at the end of the episode they reference 'The Wizard of Oz' *and* 'Scoobie Doo' within about a minute, which is quite something! And 'The Ugly Man' is one of the most grotesque and actually frightening monsters they've ever done, IMO.
I think that's all... ::runs off to take care of children::
Nifty icon by
indulging_breck.