Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality

by Field, Mark

  Nor, for the same reasons, did Faith do a good job of protecting the girls. That was the other half of her charge from Buffy at the end of EP: “Protect them, but lead them.”

  It’s important to understand that, though it may seem like it, I’m not criticizing Faith here. I particularly am not criticizing her order sending Willow, et al. to look after Buffy. While that’s probably a bad tactical decision, I interpret it as speaking well for Faith’s concerns about Buffy.

  Yes, she failed to protect the Potentials. But whether it was this particular risk or some other one, the Potentials are in danger. There’s probably nothing Faith or anyone could do which would guarantee their safety. That’s a lesson the Potentials needed to learn.

  Yes, she did a worse job than Buffy at being General, even if she had express approval from Giles and implicitly from everyone else. I’m simply stating that the point of this sequence was not to compare Faith with Buffy, but to rule out the possibility that Buffy’s “poor” Generalship was the real problem, one which could be solved merely by replacing her with another. Think of it this way: It’s theoretically possible that one day there’d be a Slayer who’s another Hannibal or Napoleon. It’s questionable whether this would be a good thing; great generals aren’t necessarily gifted with Buffy’s moral sense and intuition, only great generalship. We can hope that someone, someday, might come along with the whole package. In the meantime, though, the world is stuck with a system in which the Slayer, whoever she might be and whatever her faults, must be the leader, with everyone else bearing the cost.

  No, given the context of a season in which the isolation of the Slayer and the inability to “save them all” are the related problems to be solved, the very fact of having a General in the first place reinforces those problems rather than solving them. Faith’s actions remind us of the logical box which traps Slayers and Potentials alike.

  Buffy’s conversations back at the house confirm the point I’ve been making all along about Generalship:

  AMANDA

  I think we got punished.

  BUFFY

  What?

  KENNEDY

  (nervously) We, uh...we followed her. And it was—

  VI

  It didn't work out.

  BUFFY

  You guys, it was a trap. It's not her fault. That could've just as easily happened to me.

  Buffy hammers the point home to Faith:

  FAITH

  Somebody has to lead. Let's vote for Chao-Ahn. It's harder to lead people into a deathtrap if you don't speak English.

  BUFFY

  It wasn't your fault.

  FAITH

  (looks away) I'm really not looking for forgiveness.

  BUFFY

  You're not?

  FAITH

  What do you want me to say? I blew it.

  BUFFY

  You didn't blow it.

  FAITH

  Tell that to—

  BUFFY

  People die. You lead them into battle, they're gonna die. It doesn't matter how ready you are or how smart you are. War is about death. Needless, stupid death.

  Yes, Faith made mistakes. But that’s not the source of the problem, any more than Buffy’s mistakes were. Every Slayer – every person – makes mistakes. There’s no solution to that problem. The problem which is our focus is the one Buffy identified: leading people into battle. That’s the problem because it creates the isolation which has been the theme of S7 all along:

  FAITH

  So, here's the laugh riot. My whole life I've been a loner….

  FAITH

  No ties, no buddies, no relationships that lasted longer than...

  FAITH

  OK. The point. Me, by myself all the time. I'm looking at you, everything you have, and, I don't know, jealous. Then there I am. Everybody's looking to me, trusting me to lead them, and I've never felt so alone in my entire life.

  BUFFY

  Yeah. (swallows, looks down)

  FAITH

  And that's you every day, isn't it?

  BUFFY

  I love my friends. I'm very grateful for them. But that's the price of being a Slayer.

  Buffy can’t solve all the world’s problems, but perhaps there’s a solution to this one.

  I don’t have much to say about the other vignettes which make up the episode. I think the scenes with Buffy and Xander in the kitchen and of Anya and Andrew at the hospital are terrific. I do, however, want to emphasize the importance of catching the ambiguity of the Guardian’s words:

  WOMAN …. This [the Scythe] is a powerful weapon. (hands the Scythe back to Buffy)

  BUFFY Yeah.

  WOMAN But you already have weapons.

  BUFFY Oh.

  WOMAN Use it wisely and perhaps you can beat back the rising dark.

  Does she mean that the Scythe is a weapon in addition to the ones Buffy already has? Or that she already has the necessary weapons and doesn’t need the Scythe as a weapon? Or both?

  Trivia notes: (1) For those who haven’t read it, the Scythe – that’s what we’re calling it – is featured in Joss’s graphic novel Fray. (2) Willow’s “scythe matters” joke plays on the advertising campaign for the 1998 movie version of Godzilla. (3) Buffy’s description of the Scythe as “kills strong bodies 3 ways” plays off the old advertising slogan for Wonder Bread (“builds strong bodies 12 ways”). (4) Buffy “King Arthured” the Scythe out of the stone in reference to the stories of King Arthur pulling the sword Excalibur out of a stone. (5) Willow mentioned the Children's Crusade, and there actually was one (see the link). (6) We last saw Miss Kitty Fantastico in the episode Family. Judging by Dawn’s comment, she came to a tragic end. (7) Xander mentioned I, Claudius, for which see the link. (8) Note the contrast between Buffy’s rejection of more power in GiD and Caleb’s embrace of it here. (9) Spike’s reference to the Scythe as the “Holy Grail” supports the possible Fisher King vibes I mentioned in trivia note 11 to Touched. In that movie, finding the “Holy Grail” cures someone of catatonia and results in reconciliation for everyone. It’s not clear that the Scythe itself brings Buffy back to her friends, but it’s fair to say that finding the Scythe did. (10) Spike’s description of the Scythe as the “Holy Hand Grenade” refers to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That movie was directed by Terry Gilliam, who also directed The Fisher King. (11) For Spike’s comparison of Buffy to Carrot Top, see the link. This is possibly the best example in the series of my point in the Introduction that comedic references can become dated very quickly. (12) Spike told Buffy in Fool For Love that killing the Chinese Slayer was “the best night of my life”. Now, simply holding Buffy and giving her emotional support is. (13) Anya did leave town previously, as she tells Andrew, in Graduation Day 1, though that wasn’t an apocalypse. (14) At Comicon 2003, Joss said that Buffy sending Dawn away was the fulfillment of FE/Joyce’s statement in CWDP that “Buffy won’t choose you”. (15) Dawn confused the word “chloroform” with color forms. (16) Buffy’s note told Dawn that she’d promised to show Dawn this beautiful world, which was the promise she made in Grave. (17) Caleb compared his new strength to “like being reborn”, for which see the link. As is often the case with evil, it’s a twisted mirror image of what actually happens to the good. It’s Buffy who’s been truly reborn. (18) For Xander’s joke about “it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye”, recall this passage from Dead Man’s Party:

  “Cut to an intersection in the alley. Buffy comes around the corner and looks down the adjoining way. There she sees a man dressed in black, walking suspiciously, as though looking for something. She begins to follow silently, but doesn't notice an empty aluminum can on the pavement, and steps on it. The man reacts instantly to the noise, spins around and swings at her with a stake. Buffy throws up her arms and cross blocks the swing, then deftly takes the stake from the man's hands and raises it to counter attack. He steps back, and the white cross hanging from his neck swings around, standing out in marked contrast to the
rest of his attire. Buffy sees that it's Xander, and stays her attack. Xander is taken completely by surprise and just stares back at her.

  Buffy: (lowers the stake) Didn't anyone ever warn you about playing with pointy sticks? (shakes it at him) It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.”

  Chosen

  DRUSILLA

  … You like our little songs, don't you? You've always liked them, right from the beginning. And that's where we're going...

  THE MASTER

  ...right back to the beginning. Not the Bang... not the Word... the true beginning. (Lessons)

  Joss: “And the real beginning was girl power. The real beginning is what does it mean to be a Slayer?”

  There’s much to say about Chosen and about S7 as a whole, such that this, like most of the finale posts, will be a long one. As I did with The Gift, I’ll start with the conclusion. It’s always easiest to reverse engineer the season once you know where it’s going. Then, because S7 often gets criticized, I’ll outline how the season themes played out and the paths of the core characters.

  Season 7, like Season 3, has empowerment of others as the solution to Buffy’s challenges. Empowerment of others is the Ultimate Boon, the answer to the question Buffy asked Giles in Grave:

  BUFFY: (quietly) I guess ... I wasn't ready before. It took a long time for that feeling to go away ... the feeling that I wasn't really here. It was like ... when I clawed my way out of that grave, I left something behind. Part of me. I just... (pauses, looks Giles in the eye) I don't understand ... why I'm back.

  GILES: You have a calling.

  BUFFY: But it was my time, Giles. Someone would have taken my place. (Giles grimacing) So why?

  She knows she's special but doesn't really understand: "Why me?", a question even more poignant after her death and resurrection. All during S7 she struggled with the sense of isolation. She first tried to overcome it by withdrawing even more into her "special" cocoon, but that only isolated her all the more. Only here in Chosen does she meet her challenge, and it’s not by making herself special, it’s by making everyone her equal.

  Let’s fit this theme of empowerment together with the metaphor of the First Evil. As is always true, the main villain represents in metaphor the challenge Buffy has to overcome. As I noted in several posts, the First represents separation or isolation. It’s the voice inside us that tells us we’re not good enough, that others don’t care for us, that we should go off on our own. Buffy’s sense of isolation from being the Slayer has been present since the very first episode of S1, and we were shown it repeatedly in S7. I’ll quote from Conversations With Dead People because it’s simple and spelled out bluntly in scenes Joss himself wrote, but I’ll bet I could find 50 similar expressions of the same point throughout the series, beginning in Welcome To The Hellmouth:

  HOLDEN So, all that time, you were a slayer?

  BUFFY The.

  HOLDEN "The", like as in "the only one"?

  BUFFY Pretty much.

  HOLDEN Oh. So, when you said not connected, that was kind of a telling statement, wasn't it - ?***

  HOLDEN So, you meet someone, you form a bond...

  BUFFY But it never lasts.

  HOLDEN Do you mean in all relationships, or just yours?

  BUFFY …I think there're people out there who'd make it. I just... target the impossible ones... with deadly accuracy.

  HOLDEN You think you do that on purpose? Maybe you're trying to protect yourself?

  BUFFY Protecting myself? From heartbreak, misery, sexual violence, and possible death? Not so much.

  HOLDEN From committing.***

  BUFFY I feel like I'm worse than anyone. Honestly, I'm beneath them. My friends, my boyfriends. I feel like I'm not worthy of their love. 'Cause even though they love me, it doesn't mean anything 'cause their opinions don't matter. They don't know. They haven't been through what I've been through. They're not the slayer. I am. Sometimes I feel - (sighs) this is awful - I feel like I'm better than them. Superior.

  HOLDEN And so you can't win. And I thought I was diabolical - or, at least I plan to be. You do have a superiority complex. And you've got an inferiority complex about it. (laughs) Kudos.

  BUFFY It doesn't make any sense.

  HOLDEN (sits forward) Oh, it makes every kind of sense. And it all adds up to you feeling alone.

  Joss: “I lived my life feeling alone. That's just the way of it. I always did. As soon as I was old enough to have a feeling about it, I felt like I was alone. No matter how much I loved my family - and I actually got along better with my family than I think most people do - but I just always felt separate from everybody, and was terribly lonely all the time. I wasn't living a life that was particularly different from anybody else's, a pariah - it wasn't like I didn't have friends, but I just... we all of us are alone in our own minds, and I was very much aware of that from the very beginning of my life. Loneliness and aloneness - which are different things - are very much, I would say, of the three main things I focus on in my work.”

  I don't see how it could be any clearer that the First Consequence (TM) of becoming the Slayer is the psychological sense of separation the Slayer feels from the rest of the world. The First – which made itself known to the SG in CWDP – is therefore the metaphorical demon which stands between Buffy and the world at large. Not only does it force Buffy into a position – General Buffy – in which she becomes even less connected, but we see at the end that the First itself, in the shape of Buffy, has the goal of "feeling" the connection to others. Buffy is at war with herself. Note that when the First appears as Buffy, it always portrays her as arrogant and obsessed with power. That’s the superiority side talking, and it’s telling.

  Buffy only recognizes this internal conflict when the First/Buffy confronts her in the basement in Chosen. When the First/Buffy overplays its hand by taunting her with her aloneness, that gives her the solution of ending the isolation of the Slayer by empowering others.

  Sharing power solves all of Buffy’s problems identified in the early episodes of S7: she no longer has to function as “the law” (Selfless). She therefore will no longer suffer the sense of isolation and uncertainty she faced because she was the only one (CWDP). And she no longer has to save everyone (Help) because not only are others available who might also save them, but lots of people can now save themselves. Empowerment of others solves Buffy’s problem not just for S7, but for her whole career as the Slayer; that makes it a perfect theme for the series finale. Given that, I should explain how I understand the empowerment spell to work.

  I’ll start by asking, whom does she empower in Chosen? In a narrow sense the Potentials. Let me just explain in a bit more detail how I understood that process.

  As long as Buffy functioned as “the” Slayer, she was necessarily placed in the role of General. I’ve explained the logic of this in previous posts, so I won’t belabor it here. The problem began with the Shadowmen. The evil of the Shadowmen was not that they imbued the First Slayer with power; for all we know, that power was benign. No, the evil was the lack of choice, the fact that they forced her. They isolated her from all other women and made her alone fight the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness.

  The tactic of the Shadowmen was to fight demons by concentrating power. Within that paradigm, it's not that Buffy was wrong about the fact that she was therefore in charge, it's that she was right. Buffy felt uncomfortable with her role – that instinct caused her to reject the Shadowmen – but she was trapped by the paradigm that said power had to be concentrated in order to be used in opposition. Her answer wasn't wrong, the question was. “It’s about power” in the sense of who has it, not in the sense of how much one person has.

  As we saw in Showtime, Buffy’s actions as “the” Slayer, as General, made everyone conscious of their own weakness. Everyone else was subservient to her. In GiD, Buffy’s harsh attitude was sucking the power out of everyone else.

  This is very realistic. It’s pretty well es
tablished that a relationship involving subservience distorts the character of both master and servant. This was widely observed under slavery, where the obsequious false cheer of the slave became a stereotype (see Gone With The Wind). It wasn’t just the impact on the slave which was harmful, though. Here’s Thomas Jefferson describing the effect of the process on the masters:

  “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. … The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances….”

  Slavery is an extreme, but the same is true even under lesser forms of oppression, with weaknesses exaggerated (Rona) and strengths hidden or rejected by the victim (Annabelle and Chloe). We also see cases of bravado like Kennedy, who, much as Jefferson described the child, acts like she thinks Buffy would want while training the Potentials in GiD. As I said in my post on Potential, I see the Potentials as representing the less attractive aspects of womanhood precisely because they’ve been forced into a position of subservience.

  As we saw in Get it Done, that subservient role was created by a patriarchal structure, which is important because Buffy adopted a traditional patriarchal role as General. It was if the only change necessary for women was for a woman to replace a man in a traditional man’s role. In fact, the Potentials are at first excited by this (see the look on Kennedy’s face after Buffy defeats the Ubervamp at the end of Showtime). Eventually they’re disillusioned because their condition doesn’t change. Buffy actually perpetuates and even reinforces their subservient role.