BtVS S8.20 After these messages...
Dec. 27th, 2008 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkFor me Buffy Possible was a scoobidooification too far for this issue to be love at first sight. But considered as a coda to Time of your Life it was serviceable and the return of Jeanty’s Buffy with her ability to convey several contradictory emotions in a single frame was very welcome.
So it begins with Buffy’s response to future trauma being to binge on slayer comfort food. Old school, no squads, no delegation just a lot of one on one girl+weapon+unspeakable demon action (although she does seem to be tackling them on their home turf not waiting to for them to send out hunting parties). Dreaming of S1 is an escape from her future not her present. If what she wanted were to return to a life without responsibilities then the dream would have taken her back to Hemery before she was called. But at Hemery she didn’t know Willow and this dream is first and foremost all about the Willow.
After he turned to the darkside and she had to stab him through the heart she dreamt about Angel, the dreams always ending with an accusation. But in this dream Angel’s role seems to be not to judge her but to advise her. This time it’s not about guilt, not primarily. She blamed herself for unleashing Angelus but with hindsight she knew all the circumstances. Killing Willow (at her own behest) was traumatic but the issue is more why it had to be that way. What happened to future Willow to drive her into the long dark and should Buffy trust who or whatever required present day Willow to be blindfolded. Should she tell her friend what she wasn’t permitted to see for herself? Angel advises caution because after all what good has prophecy ever done anyone in this world? Without context it’s meaningless or worse.
The dream also allows Buffy to show that whatever the issues she now faces they don’t stem from a lack of heart. Her mother’s death still haunts her and she loves her little sister even though saying so gets her accused of being on drugs. It’s a reminder that some things don’t change, she and Dawn have a love that only speaks its name in times of world ending crisis. Other things have changed and contrasting wee timorous, early days Willow with her wise and powerful friend also makes it all too clear that there’s no going back to those early days. They had fewer burdens but they had no power, no voice. This was back when Buffy had to hide what she was from her mother and Willow didn’t even know what she was to hide. At one point Buffy gets her rant on to Giles about how in the future everyone calls her ma’am and it’s about the weight of her current responsibilities but also about being treated with respect, not as a child or an instrument of destiny.
If this issue is a raincheck on the state of Buffy the final page is a somewhat cryptic summary. It may be good to go home for a moment (but you wouldn’t want to live there any more). The Wizard of Oz framing device introduces further ambiguity, its structure suggesting that home may not in fact be her Technicolor past but the (not entirely) mundane reality of her present. Where she has a job to do but it’s also her vocation. Where it’s not simple but then it never was. Where the future’s unknown but her friends are still with her. At least for now.
So it begins with Buffy’s response to future trauma being to binge on slayer comfort food. Old school, no squads, no delegation just a lot of one on one girl+weapon+unspeakable demon action (although she does seem to be tackling them on their home turf not waiting to for them to send out hunting parties). Dreaming of S1 is an escape from her future not her present. If what she wanted were to return to a life without responsibilities then the dream would have taken her back to Hemery before she was called. But at Hemery she didn’t know Willow and this dream is first and foremost all about the Willow.
After he turned to the darkside and she had to stab him through the heart she dreamt about Angel, the dreams always ending with an accusation. But in this dream Angel’s role seems to be not to judge her but to advise her. This time it’s not about guilt, not primarily. She blamed herself for unleashing Angelus but with hindsight she knew all the circumstances. Killing Willow (at her own behest) was traumatic but the issue is more why it had to be that way. What happened to future Willow to drive her into the long dark and should Buffy trust who or whatever required present day Willow to be blindfolded. Should she tell her friend what she wasn’t permitted to see for herself? Angel advises caution because after all what good has prophecy ever done anyone in this world? Without context it’s meaningless or worse.
The dream also allows Buffy to show that whatever the issues she now faces they don’t stem from a lack of heart. Her mother’s death still haunts her and she loves her little sister even though saying so gets her accused of being on drugs. It’s a reminder that some things don’t change, she and Dawn have a love that only speaks its name in times of world ending crisis. Other things have changed and contrasting wee timorous, early days Willow with her wise and powerful friend also makes it all too clear that there’s no going back to those early days. They had fewer burdens but they had no power, no voice. This was back when Buffy had to hide what she was from her mother and Willow didn’t even know what she was to hide. At one point Buffy gets her rant on to Giles about how in the future everyone calls her ma’am and it’s about the weight of her current responsibilities but also about being treated with respect, not as a child or an instrument of destiny.
If this issue is a raincheck on the state of Buffy the final page is a somewhat cryptic summary. It may be good to go home for a moment (but you wouldn’t want to live there any more). The Wizard of Oz framing device introduces further ambiguity, its structure suggesting that home may not in fact be her Technicolor past but the (not entirely) mundane reality of her present. Where she has a job to do but it’s also her vocation. Where it’s not simple but then it never was. Where the future’s unknown but her friends are still with her. At least for now.