The Dark Age
Dec. 4th, 2003 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyThere are several places where Buffy takes a step forward into maturity, where the show evolves. The Pack is the first time that we saw that the show can actually be scary. Prophecy Girl really takes things up a notch with Buffy's speech to Giles and her momentary death. The next turning point is Lie to Me, where we learn that no matter how much we trust someone, you never know what's in their past (Angel re: Dru). That theme continues in The Dark Age.
The overall theme of Season Two is really one of betrayal, culminating in Buffy choosing the world over her love with Angel. She kills him to save the world and hates herself for it, as she hated herself for him turning evil in the first place ("It was me?"). It's about hidden faces and masks.
Becoming has so many betrayals - from Xander's Lie to Spike attacking Angelus to "Close your eyes."
In Lie to Me, the hidden past of a group member is the 'B' plot - in The Dark Age, it's the 'A' plot. Lie to Me is about Ford, whereas The Dark Age is about Giles. Themes that were in the background move to the foreground. The subtext is rapidly becoming text. Every single season two episode features a betrayal of some kind, but they become more important as the season builds.
In retrospect, what Giles does in Season Seven echoes what he's done just prior to Welcome to the Hellmouth - he forces himself to become the duty of the Watcher, not allowing anything else in him. Slowly, Buffy loosens him up, but then she dies a second time and he never recovers from that. Even though she comes back, he never recovers from seeing his Slayer dead. That fear and pain drives him in Seasons Six and Seven, and then the Council blows up and it gets even worse.
I love that after her "I don't know if I can trust you" last episode, Buffy trusts Angel with the human blood this episode. It's sweet.
Ah, this is the first episode where we see Xander actually connect with Cordelia. She says, "This is what happens when you have school on a Saturday," and he gives her this surprised look. They have more in common than he'd thought. And then later, they fight - close. It's intimate. If Willow hadn't interrupted them, that might have been their first kiss.
And here we have a scared Giles barking orders and essentially telling Buffy that her opinion doesn't matter. Once again, I'm reminded of Season Seven Giles.
"Nothing's safe in this world, Rupert. Don't you know that by now?" Sometimes, I feel that that is the lesson that Season Two is teaching - nothing is safe in this world. No one is fully honest (Everyone lies, Ethan tells us) and everyone has something they'd prefer the world not know about them. Or do they? The issue in S2 is you can only ever truly count on yourself, and Buffy learns that lesson far too well. It's much easier to walk alone than it is to integrate independence with interdependence. People can disappoint you terribly, Buffy learns. It's harder for her to learn that it's worth trusting even if that is so. She does manage it, though - that's what the whole Spike&Buffy story of Season Seven is about.
I love that Buffy and Xander just get it -
"No, no one dead."
"But someone unconscious."
They're so often on the same wavelength. Which possibly makes them better as friends than as lovers. Possibly. They really are very alike. They're kindred spirits. They make very good friends.
Oh, and this episode marks the first time that magic (well, 'majiks' as Giles says) is equated with drugs.
"It was an extraordinary high."
And there's this -
"Buffy, I'm sorry."
"I know."
Which is a big ouch, isn't it? Buffy is so sweet to him at the end, though. "Turns out you're also a person."
The overall theme of Season Two is really one of betrayal, culminating in Buffy choosing the world over her love with Angel. She kills him to save the world and hates herself for it, as she hated herself for him turning evil in the first place ("It was me?"). It's about hidden faces and masks.
Becoming has so many betrayals - from Xander's Lie to Spike attacking Angelus to "Close your eyes."
In Lie to Me, the hidden past of a group member is the 'B' plot - in The Dark Age, it's the 'A' plot. Lie to Me is about Ford, whereas The Dark Age is about Giles. Themes that were in the background move to the foreground. The subtext is rapidly becoming text. Every single season two episode features a betrayal of some kind, but they become more important as the season builds.
In retrospect, what Giles does in Season Seven echoes what he's done just prior to Welcome to the Hellmouth - he forces himself to become the duty of the Watcher, not allowing anything else in him. Slowly, Buffy loosens him up, but then she dies a second time and he never recovers from that. Even though she comes back, he never recovers from seeing his Slayer dead. That fear and pain drives him in Seasons Six and Seven, and then the Council blows up and it gets even worse.
I love that after her "I don't know if I can trust you" last episode, Buffy trusts Angel with the human blood this episode. It's sweet.
Ah, this is the first episode where we see Xander actually connect with Cordelia. She says, "This is what happens when you have school on a Saturday," and he gives her this surprised look. They have more in common than he'd thought. And then later, they fight - close. It's intimate. If Willow hadn't interrupted them, that might have been their first kiss.
And here we have a scared Giles barking orders and essentially telling Buffy that her opinion doesn't matter. Once again, I'm reminded of Season Seven Giles.
"Nothing's safe in this world, Rupert. Don't you know that by now?" Sometimes, I feel that that is the lesson that Season Two is teaching - nothing is safe in this world. No one is fully honest (Everyone lies, Ethan tells us) and everyone has something they'd prefer the world not know about them. Or do they? The issue in S2 is you can only ever truly count on yourself, and Buffy learns that lesson far too well. It's much easier to walk alone than it is to integrate independence with interdependence. People can disappoint you terribly, Buffy learns. It's harder for her to learn that it's worth trusting even if that is so. She does manage it, though - that's what the whole Spike&Buffy story of Season Seven is about.
I love that Buffy and Xander just get it -
"No, no one dead."
"But someone unconscious."
They're so often on the same wavelength. Which possibly makes them better as friends than as lovers. Possibly. They really are very alike. They're kindred spirits. They make very good friends.
Oh, and this episode marks the first time that magic (well, 'majiks' as Giles says) is equated with drugs.
"It was an extraordinary high."
And there's this -
"Buffy, I'm sorry."
"I know."
Which is a big ouch, isn't it? Buffy is so sweet to him at the end, though. "Turns out you're also a person."
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-05 01:40 am (UTC)But on the flip side, it's not quite a betrayal after all, is it. To me, the Theme isn't betrayal, so much as it is conflicting loyalties, and the difficulty one had choosing between them.
Giles decision on whether or not to re-soul Angel is another test of
conflicting loyalties. At his core, (Passion) Giles would very much like to kill Angelus. But, he also knows that re-souling Angel would be just as effective in ending his campaing of evil-badness and might carry side-benefits for Buffy's mental state as well.
So on the one hand, Buffy betrays her love for Angel by killing him. But on the other, she fulfills he lover for the world, by sacrificing her lover to save it. And as the Hemery flashback shows, Angel wasn't supposed to be there to be her lover - this was (un)happy coincidence - he was recruited to help her protect the world. And as it turns out, their melancholic senses of duty, and the feeling that they are both missing out on life because of their positions in the world that such duty entails, becomes a powerful bond between them. As much as acknowledging that duty is what ultimately keeps them apart.
So just as Buffy is betraying Angel by killing him, it would be a betrayal of that same love for her not to have killed him. And I suspect, Angel would likely tell her so. (and probably Giles as well) Not that it's of much comfort when you have visceral nightmares of the event in question. Even years later, I doubt she's ever discussed it at any length.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-05 02:03 am (UTC)And when you betray one side, you aid the other. It's always double-sided, it's always about conflicting loyalties. Xander's lie - he either betrays Buffy or, very likely in his mind, the world. Doesn't mean that his personal feelings didn't play into it, but at the point, he does not believe that Buffy can be trusted when it comes to Angelus. He's lost faith in her. Someone he liked, and who was close with someone he very much looked up to, died because Buffy couldn't kill Angelus. And I understand why she couldn't. So soon? How could she? And yet... there's always an 'and yet'. There's always another side.
In the season two finale, Xander and Buffy both chose the world over the personal. Willow and Spike chose the personal over the world. Each has wildly different motives. But they all make choices consist with who they are. It's always a choice, but no one comes to that choice with a blank slate. Years later, Buffy chooses the personal, and two years after that, has switched again. But she always makes her choice consist with who she is at the moment.
I consider the theme of the season 'betrayal' because I'm thinking specifically of the moments when people chose between their loyalties. And there's a lot of choice happening in Season Two.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-05 02:21 am (UTC)That's perfectly sound.
One thing that interests me about Xander's decision, is the precedent of Jesse. Namely, that Xander couldn't kill him when he had the chance, even knowing consciously that he was supposed to - VampJesse was bumped into the stake Xander was holding. Now he lives with that, knowing that at least nobody got hurt as a result of his failure. But when it is Buffy failing, it makes him doubly upset because he knows exactly what her problem is, and because he's admired her and can't quite believe that she isn't strong enough to handle it. In his mind, she's supposed to be better than that, and he reads her failure as something of a betrayal to the cause, when it's more likely Buffy simply being human. Hence informing his resolve to be that extra little bump that gets Angelus staked. (And yes, it also dovetails nicely with his desire to see Angelus killed)
And were it a case study, Angel, Giles and Wesley probably would have withheld the information too.
In the season two finale, Xander and Buffy both chose the world over the personal. Willow and Spike chose the personal over the world.
In a lot of ways, this is ultimately why I tend to find Buffy more compelling than Willow. Because I am drawn so heavily to stories about the pull of duty, not only to oneself, but to society as a whole. And so much of what Buffy does becomes so much larger than Buffy herself in ways I find Willow and Spike very rarely are.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-06 12:20 am (UTC)That is the perfect way of putting it. That extra bump. Yes.
And yes, those three definitely would have.
In a lot of ways, this is ultimately why I tend to find Buffy more compelling than Willow. Because I am drawn so heavily to stories about the pull of duty, not only to oneself, but to society as a whole. And so much of what Buffy does becomes so much larger than Buffy herself in ways I find Willow and Spike very rarely are.
*nods*
Yes. Willow and Spike are very focused on their love, their wants, their needs. "What's in it for me?" And that doesn't mean that they can't be heroic, but it means that their heroism tends to be a different kind. When Buffy dies to save the world - there's an implosion of light and the destruction stops, when Spike does, the light explodes and an entire town is destroyed. Willow and Spike are showy in a way that Buffy isn't. And because of that - because of their focus on keeping the costume in place, they tend not to notice society except as it directly impacts them in the form of people.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-05 11:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-05 11:54 pm (UTC)*goes off to check link*
Actually, that reminds me more of early Willow/Xander than of Buffy/Xander. It's the not telling bit. Xander did tell Buffy in Prophecy Girl.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-06 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-06 12:21 am (UTC)I have heard a K's Choice song... used it in a Buffy icon set, I think. Believe? Hmm.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-06 09:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-06 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-07 11:03 pm (UTC)