You make good points. And I’m a great believer in the possibility of multiple interpretations. This is just mine.
1) We see one set of girls feeling the power and a different set accepting it. We don’t see any of them rejecting it but ‘however many black crows you see doesn’t prove that white crows don’t exist.’ We don’t see any of the girls having black demony power forcibly enter them either. I would say either interpretation of the spell is still tenable. To be honest I find the idea that the choice is not about the power itself but the options with respect to using it more interesting. As for slayer bagging this seems to be a sport that only the stupidly foolhardy (aka young Spike) go in for. More often demons seem to be either pissed or scared off if a Slayer turns up.
2) Wouldn’t Buffy and all the new Slayers be equivalent in terms of onus? When Buffy was called if she decided not to accept it there would be no Slayer. That that’s no longer the case allows any one girl to either reject the calling or to take it up on a part time basis. In the same way that Buffy realised she could drop out when Kendra turned up or take time off to go to NorthWestern when Faith was around and active.
3) In Damage Andrew and Wesley have this exchange:
ANDREW: Yes, attractive, slender woman. There are many potentials, as we experts call them.
WESLEY: Hundreds...maybe thousands per generation.
ANDREW: Each of them experiencing vivid dreams... some say nightmares... of the heroics of past slayers. But only one can be chosen.
Which neither Wesley nor anyone else corrects him on. Dana was catatonic until she was called. My assumption, given the above exchange, was that Slayer-strength had cured her catatonia thereby allowing her to express her response to the dreams/memories. Other than that I can’t recall potentials having dreams or not ever coming up.
I think we also probably differ on Buffy’s desire for a ‘normal’ life, which might explain a lot. As ever this is just my personal interpretation of things but I thought her complaints about not being normal ceased around S4/5 as she began to find her ‘normal life’ (looking after Dawn etc) if anything more problematic than her supernatural responsibilities. Which is not to say that those responsibilities weren’t onerous, particularly as they had to be taken on alone.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-07-21 12:45 pm (UTC)1) We see one set of girls feeling the power and a different set accepting it. We don’t see any of them rejecting it but ‘however many black crows you see doesn’t prove that white crows don’t exist.’ We don’t see any of the girls having black demony power forcibly enter them either. I would say either interpretation of the spell is still tenable. To be honest I find the idea that the choice is not about the power itself but the options with respect to using it more interesting. As for slayer bagging this seems to be a sport that only the stupidly foolhardy (aka young Spike) go in for. More often demons seem to be either pissed or scared off if a Slayer turns up.
2) Wouldn’t Buffy and all the new Slayers be equivalent in terms of onus? When Buffy was called if she decided not to accept it there would be no Slayer. That that’s no longer the case allows any one girl to either reject the calling or to take it up on a part time basis. In the same way that Buffy realised she could drop out when Kendra turned up or take time off to go to NorthWestern when Faith was around and active.
3) In Damage Andrew and Wesley have this exchange:
ANDREW: Yes, attractive, slender woman. There are many potentials, as we experts call them.
WESLEY: Hundreds...maybe thousands per generation.
ANDREW: Each of them experiencing vivid dreams... some say nightmares... of the heroics of past slayers. But only one can be chosen.
Which neither Wesley nor anyone else corrects him on. Dana was catatonic until she was called. My assumption, given the above exchange, was that Slayer-strength had cured her catatonia thereby allowing her to express her response to the dreams/memories. Other than that I can’t recall potentials having dreams or not ever coming up.
I think we also probably differ on Buffy’s desire for a ‘normal’ life, which might explain a lot. As ever this is just my personal interpretation of things but I thought her complaints about not being normal ceased around S4/5 as she began to find her ‘normal life’ (looking after Dawn etc) if anything more problematic than her supernatural responsibilities. Which is not to say that those responsibilities weren’t onerous, particularly as they had to be taken on alone.