"Get It Done" redux

[truepenny]

Over on melymbrosia's blog, she's got smart things to say about power and S7 and those First Watchers from last night. Go. Read. 'Cause she says it better than I would.

I want to think about the parallel in this ep between Spike, Willow, and Buffy. Somebody over on jess79's journal was complaining that Buffy's being hypocritical by ragging on Spike and Willow and then refusing what the First Watchers offer. But for me, those are two completely different things. Buffy is refusing something explicitly external to herself, something which moreover is being FORCED on her. Melymbrosia talks about the unfortunate symbolism of the three big black guys surrounding the little, chained-up white woman (which, I agree with her, I don't think ME intended, and not in that lame, George Lucas, that's-not-a-racist-stereotype way, either), but underneath it all, it's the same damn thing that happens in "Helpless"--except that Buffy might (if those First Watchers are (a) not lying to her and (b) not terribly mistaken) get more out of it than just a pat on the head from that smug, sanctimonious git, Quentin Travers. Patriarchy is telling Buffy what it thinks she needs--and as I said in a reply to Melymbrosia, I think Buffy is entirely in the right to tell the forces of patriarchy to take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.

But back to Willow and Spike. Willow and Spike are not being presented with a demon-in-a-box. What Buffy is telling them to do--bluntly, gracelessly, and bitchily, yes, but interpersonal skills are not Buffy's strong point and never have been--is face the darkness within their selves. She's telling them they can't hide from what they are, what they have been. Darth Rosenberg is a part of Willow, no matter how much she tries to disguise it with Warren. (And can we have some more development of Willow's latent misogyny, please? Because that's a really interesting and destructive personality quirk for a lesbian witch, and I want to get it out in the open.) And no good is going to come from Willow repressing that. It's just going to well up at the worst possible moments (as it does at the end of S6).

(Did anybody else freak out when it looked like Willow's hair had turned black again, just for a second, because the portal made the light weird?)

And Spike. Buffy's right. The kinder, gentler Spike is simply NOT the Spike that she needs, no matter how much she likes him. Spike's been less fun to watch during the mid-season because he's throttled back all the parts of himself that make him Spike, while not allowing anything else to come out. (I want William, goddammit! I want Spike and Buffy to have to deal with the fact that inside this soulless Slayer-killer there's still a shy, bad-poetry-writing virgin who died back when Victoria was on the throne. They've been going there a little with Spike's body language, particularly in "Beneath You" and "Sleeper," but, much like Willow's Inner Warren, I want it out and thematized and dealt with. Also, I want Buffy/William sex, but that's probably because I'm a pervy poet fancier.)

And I love love LOVE the fact that Buffy called him on that "I did it for you" crap. Because, yes, I believe him, and I believe that Spike thought it was what she wanted, but it still remains true that (a.) that's a lousy reason for getting yourself resoulled and (b.) he didn't ever CONSULT Buffy to see what she thought of the plan. And it may be a reason, but I think Buffy's right: he's been using it as an excuse. Like Willow, Spike's been denying that the Malevolent Spike of the Leather Duster is him, that it's as much who he is as the Repentant Spike of the Ugly Denim Jacket. He's not doing anyone, including himself, any good, by hiding in Buffy's basement from his true self.

So, for me, there's a qualitative and necessary difference between Buffy telling Spike and Willow to grow a spine, and Buffy refusing to be violated by that creepy-ass demon dust. Buffy's rejecting something external; Spike and Willow are trying to reject their shadow-selves. And you can't do that. Not and stay sane.

Also, I think everybody needs to practice calling Principal Wood "Robin." Robin, Robin, Robin. (This makes Spike's crack about the Batpoles in "Beneath You" suddenly more cogent.) Robin. Robin, Robin, Robin. At the moment, I am perfectly balanced between the Spuffy and the Buncipal. Can't Buffy have them both?

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Damn you! You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking several months to write up "Conversations with Dead People."

Yes--I agree with you about the inner darkness and the amount of denial going on. I think this is where Buffy is, for once, ahead of the game, though as you mention her trouble articulating it is interfering. She spent all last season essentially realizing her own capacity for abuse of power ("But why do I let him do all these things to me?"), and unlike Willow or Spike, she has claimed some of her own darkness.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Sorry. Didn't mean to steal your thunder.

But, yes, I think this season is the first time in the whole 7 year run that we've seen Buffy not trying to deny or bargain with her Slayer-self. Robin's "I'm just a guy" resonates back to the kid in the alley in "The Gift": But you're just a girl! And Buffy says then, "That's what I keep saying." And I think the reason for it to echo here is that Buffy's quit saying that. One of my favorite Buffy-lines from S5 is what she says to Dracula: How do you like my darkness now? And I think there's a lot of that under the surface in S7. Buffy knows her darkness; the other characters are having trouble with theirs.

And Buffy isn't stupid (as Jane Espenson points out in the commentary track to "Earshot"), but she isn't articulate. She never has been. She's never really needed to be; the Slayerettes have never needed motivating beyond, There's an apocalypse to avert and this is how Buffy wants it averted. But that doesn't work this season, and although it's not emotionally satisfying to watch, I appreciate the fact that we're getting the process of Buffy trying to figure out how to push the buttons she needs. She's tried being General Buffy; she's tried being Den Mother Buffy; she's tried being Morbider-than-thou Buffy. This week she's trying Virago Buffy, and it's had an effect. I don't think it's a good long term strategy, but her instincts are right. She can't keep coddling people--not Spike, not Willow, not the Junior Slayers. Willow and Xander, in particular, have always looked to Buffy to define who they are, and I'm glad that Buffy is kicking them out of the nest.

Um, okay. Didn't mean to give a speech. Shutting up now.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

The big problem here, which I think is causing so many Buffy issues (although there's a good deal of character prejudice/preference going on as well), is that Buffy keeps shouting at people to be proactive, and then not offering any concrete advice on how to do so. She has no idea what to do. I'm sympathetic with her flailing panic, and in some ways it's a not ineffective flailing panic, because she keeps trying and then rejecting various methods of fighting; but it is still panic, and she is still striking out at her allies.

Training the Potentials to defend themselves against Harbingers is actually a good idea; her frustration with the limitations of this idea--that is, that it's a stopgap, not a solution--is blinding her to its real merits in "Get It Done." Researching the First--also a good idea, a better longterm solution. But not one congenial to Buffy, who works by instinct so well that she is, as either or both you and Here's Luck have noted, a pretty terrible teacher.

Spike is seeking to be defined by Buffy. It's unfair of him to do that, though (being scrupulous against my instincts here ;), it's also unfair of Buffy to keep changing the terms of that definition on him. I think it's a perfectly understandable thing to do--he's holding her back; she's trying to use the same taunting techniques on him that he used on her S5-6; she is so frustrated and angry and guilty that she just can't be Quiet Understanding Buffy now--but I think it also just emphasizes how unhealthy and how irresolveable the power imbalance in that relationship is. I need to write up my thoughts on how Buffy/Spike paralleled Buffy/Faith. But Spike's desire for domination brings out all of Buffy's feelings of superiority and isolates her from the human connections she needs. She owns her darkness now, and so she can use it--lashes out at Spike in what is clearly a semi-deliberate attempt to evoke useful action, as opposed to the physical abuse and projected self-punishment of the beating in "Dead Things."

Hmm. Spike is to Buffy as Kennedy is to Willow: the blind encouragement of the use of power. And Buffy and Willow both know better. Willow is just having problems balancing knowledge and control, as Xander said in "Help."

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The problems Buffy's having with her army are reminding me of the end of S4: I guess I'm starting to understand why there's no ancient prophecy about a Chosen One and her friends. The Slaying, as Buffy says to Joyce in "Gingerbread," is kind of an alone thing--which is also what the Primitive tells Buffy in "Restless." Buffy comes from a long line of women who fight ALONE. Being a Slayer is really all about NOT having someone to watch your back. The fact that Buffy and Faith, and Buffy and Kendra, immediately react to each other with jealousy and suspicion is not only because they're teenage girls. It's because Slayers are not social animals. And the Watchers' Council has exploited that and reinforced it to the point that ONLY a spoiled California princess like Buffy could stand up against it enough to have friends and to tell them the truth. But leading an army is not what she's been trained to do and in many ways it works AGAINST her Slayer powers. So kudos to her for continuing to try, but it is, if you'll pardon the metaphor, an uphill battle. And kudos to ME for not hand-waving past it.

[lenadances.livejournal.com]

Damn. This is brilliant. You're so very right; both Willow and Spike have been overcompensating since last season and they really need to get the hell over it or they'll be useless in the final battle.

Damn, do I like this idea. Damn.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

You make a really good point about the difference between internal and external... but how external is it really? Buffy's the Slayer, as surely as Spike is a vampire and Willow is power-hungry. And this ritual, this origin, is the source and the heart -- pun intended -- of Slayerness (Slayericity?).

It's in external form, yes, but do we really think the actual shaman from mumble-thousand years ago have been hanging around waiting for her all this time for the chance to work their paternalistic will? I think they're a manifestation of something that doesn't even have gender, and that much like the desert vision quest or the Restless dreams, it is forcing Buffy to confront what's *inside* her by taking it out where she can see it. (The thread of desert symbolism and the First Slayer appearing in all of those is probably not a coincidence.)

In this case, she's confronting the fact that she *isn't* entirely human. And she's rejected the option of embracing that, even if it strengthens her, because it might make her less human -- which is precisely the same reason that Willow and Spike were keeping their own inner darkness at arm's length.

All of them define human as civilized. And all of them believe the (very Freudian, really) idea that civilization consists of restraining your less than pleasant impulses. I'm not sure its a question of rejecting the shadow-self so much as a question of are you casting the shadow as the id, which must constantly be battled and kept down by the superego, or are you striving for a more organic balance in which the shadow self has a legitimate place but still doesn't run the whole show.

I think they're all moving from the first to the second, but they're not there yet, and in some ways Buffy has the furthest to go. She's flirted with the idea that she has a dark side before -- with Faith, with Spike -- but IMHO she's in far more denial than Willow, Spike, or even Giles are that her dark side and the source of her strength might be one and the same.

Mer

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's a fair cop. The distinction between Buffy and Spike & Willow is not nearly as clear-cut as I'm trying to make it out to be. And I think you're right that Buffy's various visions are the manifestation of something older than gender--as the First Evil is older than gender. Which does kind of beg the question of why it (this primal Slayer-whatsit) keeps manifesting itself in such highly gendered forms.

That can of worms aside, I think I would still argue that Buffy's journey is different than Spike's or Willow's.

Back in "Restless," Buffy tells the Primitive firmly, "You are not the source of me." I think a lot of Buffy's arc through the series has consisted of refusing to let her Slayer powers demonize or dehumanize her. Kendra and Faith are both examples of how this can happen; Kendra is dehumanized because she is nothing but the Slayer; Faith becomes increasingly demonic (i.e., increasingly like Angelus) because she makes no effort to rein in the demon's bloodlust and glory in killing. The show consistently shows that Buffy is making the right choices by showing her against Slayers who are not resisting their demon--including that alternative Buffy in "The Wish," who is like a horrible mixture of the worst in both Kendra and Faith.

Also, I think the dream vision in "Get It Done" does echo the Cruciamentum in "Helpless." It's a ritual set up very explicitly with Buffy as victim, and I can't think that refusing victimhood on this show can be a bad thing.

And, to me, there's still a qualitative difference between the darknesses involved. Willow and Spike are trying to deny the self that has done terrible things. Buffy is refusing to let her self be defined by exterior forces. Fundamentally, the Slayerness is external to Buffy; I think that's one of the things the flashback in "Becoming I" points out, how very much NOT the Slayer she was when she was called.

Buffy's darkness, it seems to me, actually isn't entangled with her Slayerness; it's much more about her humanity. The terrible things Buffy does in S6 are not the result of being the Slayer (except insofar as her Slayerness is the cause of her resurrection); specifically, in "Normal Again," her attack of Lizzie-Borden-itis is an attempt to reject being the Slayer. I'd argue that's the worst thing Buffy has ever done, and she does it out of weak selfish humanaity.

I'm not sure its a question of rejecting the shadow-self so much as a question of are you casting the shadow as the id, which must constantly be battled and kept down by the superego, or are you striving for a more organic balance in which the shadow self has a legitimate place but still doesn't run the whole show.

Yes. I think the situation is getting more complicated as they go (as so many things on BtVS do). Back in S2, Spike and Dru pretty clearly are the Id, and there's always been a definite component of Id-ness in Spike, most blatant with the wild house-destroying sex in S6. But I don't think Darth Rosenberg is really a manifestation of the Id, and I don't think Duster!Spike is the Id, either. I argued in something I wrote (god, I don't even remember what) that starting in S5, Spike is serving as a metaphor for Buffy's death-wish, and I think that's closer to what's happening with Spike himself in S7. The Id still needs to be held in check, but the shadow-self is not the Id.

Hopefully, that clarifies my position. I may still be wrong-headed, but at least I'm clear about it. *g* Thanks for making me think all this through more carefully.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'll have more on this later, when I finally do the CwDP post, but I disagree with some of your points. Mainly, I think the show has increasingly problematized the distinction between demonic and human evil. That is, I don't see Faith as falling prey to a *demonic* bloodlust, but to an entirely human one. There is, for Buffy, increasingly little distinction between the Slayer and the girl. Maybe the taste for rough sex in S6 came from the Slayer's association of violence and love. Or maybe it came from an entirely human response to six years of violence and loss. I think the Slayerness isn't nearly as external to Buffy as she's liked to believe in the past. (Faith: If it doesn't feel good, you're not doing it right.)

Willow's worst deeds came from herself, not the magic; Spike's rape attempt, I've argued and still believe, didn't come from any external demon but from human confusions and hatreds. Buffy may have been trying to reject the role of Slayer in "Normal Again," but she used the tools being the Slayer gave her: violence, cunning, action. I don't see the episode really supporting the argument that being the Slayer is extrinsic to her being. If anything, I'd argue the oppostie: Buffy is only able to return to health and sanity by accepting her role and powers as the Slayer. (Unless you want to privilege the reality of the mental institution, which I don't find very palatable.)

In S3, Angel said, "It's not the monster in me that needs killing, it's the man," and I think that's what it ultimately comes down to for all the major characters in the Buffyverse. Not that they all need killing :) -- but that their most dangerous characteristics and worst actions don't come from their "demonic" natures but from human needs and desires.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Fuck.

I said this all upside down, and backed myself into a stance I don't agree with. *wails* I used to be so good at this!

Right. Let me try again.

To correct my first cardinal error, I forgot to say METAPHORICALLY demonic. Bad Truepenny. No cookie.

I don't think Faith is becoming a demon any more than you do, and I don't think that the Buffy/Slayer (false!) dichotomy is about human vs. demon. I think it's about love vs. hate, or love vs. uncaringness. That's what you get with Faith and Kendra and the Wishverse Buffy: "No, you don't get it. I don't care." Unlike Buffy, I don't think any choice she makes can make her be not-human, but I do think she's right to worry that she can make choices that will end up making her a (human) monster, like Faith, like Warren. Spike and Willow have already made these choices--as they are both very clearly aware (and good god, no, of course Spike's rape attempt doesn't come from the demon; if it were demonically motivated, he'd just bite her. I think it does come from not having a soul, but the motivations are purely, desperately, both tragically and hatefully human.)--and now have to live with the consequences. They've been trying to do this by denial, and Buffy's speech (that started all this floundering verbiage from yours truly) was a brutal attempt to make them face up to that which they have been denying. The repressed always returns; on BtVS it always returns with a vengeance. "You can't just bury stuff, Buffy," Xander says in "Dead Man's Party," as the zombies are closing in. "It'll come right back up to get you."

And I really don't think (regardless of what it ended up looking like I was saying) that refusing Slayerness is the answer, ever. What I also forgot to say (and this is just because on the inside of my head it's all so obvious--why do y'all not have your telepathy turned on?) is that I think there are two opposing ideologies (if you'll forgive me using the word) of Slayerness. One is that represented by Kendra, and the Council, and the Primitive, and now the First Watchers. The other is this thing that Buffy's making up as she goes along, her own way of trying to reconcile having these powers with also being and staying human, loving, in the world.

My favorite Buffy-speech of all time, bar none, is this from "Restless": I walk. I talk. I shop; I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends.

And I think that's what I'm trying to say here; Buffy's Slayerness, her darkness, IS NOT THE SAME AS the Slayerness that people and forces other than Buffy try to make her embrace. Giles got this in S1; nobody else has ever gotten it since. Buffy is rejecting other people's ideas about what Slayerness is--that's what's extrinsic to her. The Slayerness itself is a burden, and it is something that is imposed on her ("I'm destiny-free, really," she says in that flashback), but it's also something that she does have to accept and that becomes an inextricable part of her as soon as she stakes that first vampire instead of letting it kill her. I never ever ever meant to imply otherwise.

And if I could have said all this properly the first time ... well, that would be an alternate universe, and we know that never ends well. *sigh* Stupid Truepenny.

Again, as I said to stakebait, thank you for making me try again to say what I mean.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Okay, so we are entirely in agreement. Especially about favorite Buffy speeches *ever*.