Pictures:

[butterfly]

Whenever Buffy starts to lose herself and isolate herself from her friends, she generally ends up looking at a picture.

This happens at least four times (anyone remember any others?)

The one she looks at in the early part of S6 has Buffy and Willow in the foreground and Xander in the middle but in the back.

When she looks at a picture in S7, the two girls are together in the back (with Willow almost hidden behind Buffy) and Xander's the counterpoint on the bottom, head resting on Buffy and her arm around behind him. And interestingly, it was taken at the same time as the photo she looks at in Primeval, though in that one, she's smiling down at him. The first time is in Dead Man's Party, and it's also from the same shoot - with all three of them all cuddled up together. Is it just coincidence that as the years pass, they get further away in that set of photos? And yet, the connection doesn't fade, even though the distance does increase.

Comments

[sexonastick.livejournal.com]

I think I'm totally making this up, but I don't have the DVDs around for reference and it's nagging. So.

Was there a picture in When She Was Bad? I guess I just thought the photo thing happened sooner than season three.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Not as far as I can tell from screencaps, but when I rewatch WSWB, I'll know for certain and I'll try to remember to mention it.

But yeah, I think that DMP may be the first time.

[grlnamedlucifer.livejournal.com]

It's not a picture of the Scoobies, but there was also when she was getting all confused about Dawn, she looked at the picture of her and Joyce with Dawn fading in and out.

not a photo, but...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...Buffy, Xander and Willow sitting together at the end of The Wish, laughing and talking, is certainly presented as a counterpoint to the AU we've just been shown in which the ultimate alienation - them killing each other - has taken place.

Interesting observation about the photos. They seem to work as a touchstone of emotional connections for her, or as the past she tries to get back in touch with. Not just the Scoobies together but also her parents; I recall Buffy watching the photo of herself and her parents (sans Dawn) in Normal Again, and of course the photo with Dawn and her mother from which Dawn kept dissappearing in There is no place like home.

Here's something odd: she never does this with any of her love interests. Not Angel, not Riley, not Spike. With them, it's things (the cross, the claderagh, Riley's t-shirt, for example), but not pictures.

And, oh: Restless. Buffy looks at a picture of Xander, Willow, Giles and herself (in fact the four of them as they're sleeping in the Summers living room) when having the
Tara/First Slayer: You lost them
Buffy: No, I'm going to find them again
exchange.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

True. Though that was the spell thing, so it's not being used in the same way. Still important, of course.

Re: not a photo, but...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It seems to be only a 'family' thing, not a love interest thing. She sees pictures of her chosen family to remind her of her ties to this world and pictures of her blood family to remind her of her blood ties.

And yeah, the Restless card/picture is interesting (it's actually of them waking up, as I recall... hmm, I want to go rewatch and see if it mimics the real wake-up). And she tries to follow Xander up the stairs in her dream... the only time she physically sees one of the other Scoobies, interestingly enough. She sees Anya, not Willow in the dorm. She doesn't see Giles in her dream. But she does see Xander. And she tries to follow him, leaving her mom behind (hmm... Xander was part of both of her resurrections and the only part in her first, could it be that she's leaving her mom behind the wall (death) and following Xander (normal guy, heart guy, the one who sees and loves) back to where life is?)