Eternal Buffy

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I posted an essay comparing early seasons to late seasons and drawing parallels between season 6 and season 3 on buffy_love but zanthinegirl commanded asked me to repost it here!

So here I am, obeying...;- )

Unlike some viewers I don't think that the late seasons destroyed the character of Buffy. She wasn't exactly what she was in the first seasons because it's what happens when you grow up, yet she remained the same, and there's a real consistency in the show.

I  had a discussion on a forum, the Cross and Stake Spoiler Board, about Buffy in season 6, and a poster named Michael pointed something interesting that makes me think.

He argued that "Normal Again" worked like "Dead's Man Party", saying that NA was Buffy's last temptation to give up and run. Also he hinted at the title of the episode between "As You Were" and NA, Hell's Bells.

There's indeed a parallel that we can draw between season 3 and season 6. At the beginning of both seasons, Buffy is depressed and recovering (from killing her beloved Angel and sending him to Hell, from having been resurrected by Willow).

Before "Dead Man's Party", there was "Anne" in which Buffy tried to be simply a girl, away from the Hellmouth and her calling, working as a waitress, but eventually she ended up going down a Hellish dimension and became The Slayer again, in Hell. Hell..does it ring any bell? Hell's Bells indeed...

So unlike Michael I don't think that AYW echoed "Anne", I think that it's "Hell's Bells" that echoed "Anne".

"Hell's Bells" isn't only about Anya and Xander...as usual it's about Buffy too. Buffy who is much more in a girlish mode than in Slayer mode, Buffy who is vulnerable enough to tell Spike that seeing his date hurt. The opening scene points it out:

WILLOW: (horrified) Buffy, it's hideous. Oh my god, Buffy. Look at its arms!
BUFFY: (nods bravely) I know. But it's my duty.

Her duty, not as a Slayer but as Buffy the bridesmaid !

In that episode Buffy is showed as a teary and devoted friend, as a cheerful hostess entertaining the guests, as an ex girl-friend...until she tries to save Anya from the demon, ripping a slit up the skirt of her bridesmaid dress to free her legs. Then she reverses to her Slayer self just like in "Anne", and fights the demon.

Anya and Xander can't escape their demons and Buffy can't escape hers..she will try to give up her calling in "Normal Again", but is back to Slayer business for good, against the nerds and Darth Willow at the end of the season.

In earlier seasons the demons and problems came from outside but in season 6-7 the demons, the enemy, were mostly inside and the characters had truly made their beds...a bed of pain.

Also I don't think it's a coincidence if Halfrek showed up in season 6, just like Faith showed up in season 3. In a way, Anya's and Xander's storylines echoed Buffy's. They mirrored her own journey.

In "Anne" Buffy had to deal with what she did in "Becoming Part II"...she deserted the one she loved by plunging a sword in Angel's chest and letting Acathla swallowing him to Hell..and then ran away.   Xander also ripped the heart  of his beloved in "Hell's Bells", left her at the altar, running away...and Anya became a demon again, therefore was doomed to Hell.

In season 6 Halfrek represented what Anya was and could become again, and season 3 Faith represented what a Slayer could become too, getting off on violence, feeling above the laws...a bit what Buffy did through his affair with Spike or in "Gone" for instance.

Anya gave in and became Anyanka again after "Hell's Bells" when Buffy just gave up her Faithish behaviour because it was killing her.


Having said that I don't think that season 6 would be a mere rehash of season 3. 

For instance "Normal Again" is also the opposite of "Dead's Man Party"...In DMP Buffy felt ignored, neglected and rejected even, by her mother and her friends whereas in NA she had a caring mother and she's the one who's about to erase her friends from her life. Funnily in DMP she needed to be accepted again, to be needed again whereas in NA she thought she didn't need her "imaginary" friends anymore. In NA she wanted to run towards home and parents, as a kid (so Dawn who is the actual kid had to disappear of course), but in DMP she just felt misunderstood by her peers and wanted to run from her parents' house like in a typical teenage crisis.

So NA isn't a rehash of DMP, there's a progression following the major theme of the series: growing-up!

I think that NA is Buffy's last temptation and try not to grow up actually because becoming an adult is too hard.

Giles is no longer there to guide and support her, she has to take care of Dawn alone, she has money issues and had  to get a depressing and smelly job, love life isn't the fairy tale that her teenager self would have dreamt of : Willow and Tara aren't together anymore, she and Spike had an unhealthy affair, Xander left Anya at the altar ruining the dreamy picture of the happy wedding in white...

Buffy is facing many truths during the two last seasons until "Lies My Parents Told Me", the last trial before letting her childhood behind her, a turning point episode, a pivotal moment for Buffy who metaphorically cut the umbilical cord. Then she could become Giles' equal.

Of course LMTP was the counterpoint to "Lie To Me" from season 2, but that's another story...
 

Comments

[quietpoet.livejournal.com]

did you post this in buffy_love also? I got major deja vu, and I KNOW I read this before somewhere. Enjoyed it both times!! your points make a lot of sense.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Yep.

:- )