Buffy - Season 5 impressions (episode 19)
Jan. 19th, 2006 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thalia_seawoodTough Love
For a summary click here.
- I like how the title of this episode is reflected in two different relationships:
There's Buffy and Dawn and we see that Buffy has to shoulder even more responsibilities. She has to find the right balance between being a loving sister and an adult who's in charge of Dawn.
On the other side, there's Willow and Tara. Like Buffy, by the end of the episode Willow will have to take on a lot more responsibility.
Regarding the theme of "tough love", I find Glory squeezing Tara's hand symbolic. Glory takes a gentle loving gesture and turns it into something vicious. This can stand for love becoming a burden, a stranglehold: For the one who loves and/or for the one who is loved. True love is finding the right balance between holding on and letting go.
My impression is that the main theme in season 5 is accepting more responsibility. Season 6 so far deals mostly with consequences.
- Buffy & Dawn:
Life is not becoming any easier for her.
She decides to temporarily drop out of college, so she can earn money and even more importantly take care of Dawn.
Buffy's decision reminded me of my mother. Her mother died when she was around 18 and she had to get a job to take care of her 7 years younger brother. I know my mother would have loved to go to college, but she never had the time or money for it. She made up for it by reading a lot of books and learning about anything that struck her as interesting.
In addition to this, Buffy has to take on a role she's not ready for. She needs to become an authority figure and has no clue how to go about it. In the past, she used to question authority after all and she can't see herself in a different role yet.
While I want to rant at Giles for leaving Buffy alone with such a difficult task, I realise it's the only way. I don't think Dawn would react well if Giles stepped in as an authority figure. In fact, I'm sure it would make her rebel a lot more.
Giles: You're just going to have to put your foot down with her.
Buffy: I try. It's just ... my foot's not used to being put down. (turns to Giles) I want you to do it. (Giles sighs) You can be the foot-putting-downer.
Giles: No, Buffy, I don't think I can.
Buffy: Please? Pretty please? (desperately) I mean, your foot is way bigger than mine! And you're so much more a grownup than me. Dawn needs an authority figure. A strong guiding hand. She'll listen to you.
Giles: (scoffs) Just like you always have.
Buffy: I listen!
Giles gives her a look.
Buffy: (pouts) I do.
Giles: (removes his glasses, sits next to her) Well, then perk up your ears. I may be a grownup, but you're her family. Her only real family now. She needs you to do this.
Buffy: (nervous) Right. She needs me. (Giles looks sympathetic) Me, the ... grownup. (more confidently) The authority figure. The, the strong guiding hand and, and stompy foot that is me.
Giles: That's the spirit.
Buffy: (small smile) Okay. (nods) I can do this. (gets up)
Giles: (gets up) I know you can.
They walk a few steps toward the door, then Buffy whirls around to face Giles.
Buffy: Please?
Giles: No.
When Buffy takes her first stance with Dawn, she puts her foot down not only at the wrong moment, but also way to hard. And I heart her messing up: It would be perfectly unrealistic if she got it right the first time.
Willow tries to help, but makes things worse. She has known Buffy for so long that she doesn't get that Buffy is trying to take on a new role. Instead she wants to get the old, familiar Buffy back and by doing though accidentally undermines the authority Buffy is trying to gain.
The comment that Buffy needs a break isn't very helpful either, because, sure, Buffy needs a break, but there's no chance she can take one. After all, none of her responsibilities will simply go away.
Willow: Yeah, well, maybe you need a break to de-freak. Hey, you could go to the World's Culture fair if you want to, with me and Tara.
Buffy: (quietly) I don't think so.
Willow: Come on. You can bring Dawn. It'll be fun. Good, educational-type fun in a discipline-y sort of way.
Buffy: I can't do it, Will. Don't worry. It's not like I don't have a life. I do. I have Dawn's life.
What resolves Buffy's difficulties with Dawn for now, is not that Buffy becomes the perfect parental figure over the course of one episode. It's Dawn's fear that she could lose the only family she has.
Dawn: Why? Why should I care about any of this?
Buffy: Because they'll take you away!
Beat. Long shot of the two of them facing off across the table. Dawn unfolds her arms and looks scared.
Dawn: Take me away? What do you mean?
Buffy: (softly) They'll take you away from me. That's what your Principal told me when you weren't in the room. If I can't make you go to school, then I won't be found fit to be your legal guardian.
- Willow & Tara:
They have their first argument - and says a lot about these two. During their argument, felt like stepping in and shaking them both, because really, can't they just say what they mean without back pedalling three times in a single sentence? They are both so ultra-sensitive, utterly afraid of hurting one another or being hurt themselves. What they want is a relationship that's perfectly harmonious at all times. They would rather not talk about any difficult topics, even if they *need* to be discussed.
My experience is that occasional arguments don't hurt a stable relationship/friendship. It's much more risky not to talk about things that bother you.
Tara brings up some valid points. She's worried about Willow becoming more and more powerful, she's worried Willow might not be able to use her powers in a responsible way.
Tara: Oh, but you're way beyond me there! In just a few- I mean ... it frightens me how powerful you're getting.
This isn't something Willow wants to think about, so she deflects the point Tara brings up. She moves the fight in a different direction and essentially states that Tara is afraid Willow might eventually end the relationship in favor of a man.
Tara: I trust you. I just ... (looks down) I don't know where I'm gonna fit in ... in your life when...
Willow: When ... I change back? Yeah, this is a college thing, just a, a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boys' town.
Now Tara has her insecurities and this could be a fear she does indeed have. Nevertheless, my impression is that Willow is neatly avoiding the real issue.
- Glory:
Her scene with Tara is intense and extremely painful to watch. Poor, poor Tara.
This quote is interesting, because I believe it shows us some of Glory's own deepest fears:
Glory: Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain. (Tara looks very scared) It doesn't kill you. What it does ... is make you feel like you're in a noisy little dark room ... (Glory frowns and fidgets uncomfortably) naked and ashamed ... and there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad ... little pinching things that go in your ears ... (Tara begins to cry) and crawl on the inside of your skull. And you know ... that if the noise and the crawling would stop ... that you could remember how to get out.
It's hard to see Tara after she has lost her mind.
What is it with Joss Whedon and insane women? There's River, Drusilla, Cordelia in the season 1 finale, Fred and now Tara. Even Faith is mentally unstable to the extreme.
Willow is willing to take care of Tara and to stay with her even if Tara never regains her sanity.
(A thought that is probably unfair to Willow, but won't leave me alone: Tara losing her mind means she becomes dependent on Willow. Which means she won't be able to leave Willow. It might be that some small part of Willow isn't adverse to that.)
- The showdown:
Willow didn't understand Buffy's situation in the beginning of this episode. And Buffy doesn't understand Willow; she genuinely believes that Willow won't do anything foolish. Once again, Spike is the one who gets it. (He's really good with understanding others, but has a hard time understanding himself.)
Spike: You - so you're saying that a ... powerful and mightily pissed-off witch ... was plannin' on going and spillin' herself a few pints of god blood until you, what, "explained"?
Buffy frowns, looks at Dawn and back at Spike.
Buffy: You think she'd ... no. I told Willow it would be like suicide.
Spike: I'd do it.
Buffy stares at him.
Spike: (looks down at the ground) Right person. Person I loved. (looks at Buffy) I'd do it.
Buffy continues to stare at him as if not getting it.
Dawn: Think, Buffy. If Glory had done that to me.
Buffy glances at Spike, jumps up and races out.
I can understand Willow trying to hurt Glory. Nevertheless, I find it worrying that she knows no restraint. To use a book called Darkest Magick sounds extremely risky. Yes, you get instant power now, but I would think that ultimately there's a price to pay.
We see that Willow will do everything to protect Tara: She's willing to use dark magic and she rushes into action without listening to advice or asking her friends for help.
The final scene is a most wonderful cliffhanger with Glory cornering Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn and finding out due to Tara's vision that Dawn is the Key.
What's lovely is that Tara is the first insane person we've seen who's not afraid of Dawn, but who finds her Key-self beautiful.
- Other:
* Anya's speech made me smile. Do I detect some cleverly hidden criticism of the system in this episode? :-)
Anya: Well, that's right, foreigner. (Giles gives her a look) So I've been reading a lot about the good ol' us of A (she says "us" not "U.S."), embracing the extraordinarily precious ideology that's helped to shape and define it.
Willow: Democracy?
Anya: Capitalism. The free market depends on the profitable exchange of goods for currency. (Xander and Willow exchange an amused look) It's a system of symbiotic beauty apparently lost on these old people. (turns to look back at the customers) Look at 'em. Perusing the shelves. Undressing the merchandise with their eyeballs (turns back to the others) all ogle, no cash. It's not just annoying, it's unAmerican.
Giles comes over to her and peers past her at the customers.
Giles: Appalling. Almost as if they no longer think money can buy happiness.
* I love this scene with Spike and Dawn.
We see that Buffy does trust Spike after what he did in Intervention. Otherwise she wouldn't ask him to protect her sister.
This is also the second time, that Spike reaches out to someone. The first time is when he pats Buffy's shoulder in the final scene of Fool For Love. Here he nearly strokes Dawn's hair to comfort her.
Spike's final comment in this scene is interesting, too: It suggest that it's not necessary to be perfectly good in order to be "okay".
Spike: Hey.
He puts out a hand to touch her hair, but pulls it back quickly as she turns back toward him.
Dawn: You wanna know what I'm scared of, Spike? ... Me. (tearfully) Right now, Glory thinks Tara's the key. But I'm the key, Spike. I am. And anything that happens to Tara ... is 'cause of me. Your bruises, your limp ... that's all me too. I'm like a lightning rod for pain and hurt. (crying) And everyone around me suffers and dies. I ... must be something so horrible ... to cause so much pain ... and evil.
Spike: (firmly) Rot.
Dawn: (teary) What do you know?
Spike: I'm a vampire. I know somethin' about evil. You're not evil.
Dawn: Maybe ... I'm not evil. But I don't think I can be good. (looks up at Spike with a hopeful expression)
Spike: (considers) Well, I'm not good, and I'm okay.
For a summary click here.
- I like how the title of this episode is reflected in two different relationships:
There's Buffy and Dawn and we see that Buffy has to shoulder even more responsibilities. She has to find the right balance between being a loving sister and an adult who's in charge of Dawn.
On the other side, there's Willow and Tara. Like Buffy, by the end of the episode Willow will have to take on a lot more responsibility.
Regarding the theme of "tough love", I find Glory squeezing Tara's hand symbolic. Glory takes a gentle loving gesture and turns it into something vicious. This can stand for love becoming a burden, a stranglehold: For the one who loves and/or for the one who is loved. True love is finding the right balance between holding on and letting go.
My impression is that the main theme in season 5 is accepting more responsibility. Season 6 so far deals mostly with consequences.
- Buffy & Dawn:
Life is not becoming any easier for her.
She decides to temporarily drop out of college, so she can earn money and even more importantly take care of Dawn.
Buffy's decision reminded me of my mother. Her mother died when she was around 18 and she had to get a job to take care of her 7 years younger brother. I know my mother would have loved to go to college, but she never had the time or money for it. She made up for it by reading a lot of books and learning about anything that struck her as interesting.
In addition to this, Buffy has to take on a role she's not ready for. She needs to become an authority figure and has no clue how to go about it. In the past, she used to question authority after all and she can't see herself in a different role yet.
While I want to rant at Giles for leaving Buffy alone with such a difficult task, I realise it's the only way. I don't think Dawn would react well if Giles stepped in as an authority figure. In fact, I'm sure it would make her rebel a lot more.
Giles: You're just going to have to put your foot down with her.
Buffy: I try. It's just ... my foot's not used to being put down. (turns to Giles) I want you to do it. (Giles sighs) You can be the foot-putting-downer.
Giles: No, Buffy, I don't think I can.
Buffy: Please? Pretty please? (desperately) I mean, your foot is way bigger than mine! And you're so much more a grownup than me. Dawn needs an authority figure. A strong guiding hand. She'll listen to you.
Giles: (scoffs) Just like you always have.
Buffy: I listen!
Giles gives her a look.
Buffy: (pouts) I do.
Giles: (removes his glasses, sits next to her) Well, then perk up your ears. I may be a grownup, but you're her family. Her only real family now. She needs you to do this.
Buffy: (nervous) Right. She needs me. (Giles looks sympathetic) Me, the ... grownup. (more confidently) The authority figure. The, the strong guiding hand and, and stompy foot that is me.
Giles: That's the spirit.
Buffy: (small smile) Okay. (nods) I can do this. (gets up)
Giles: (gets up) I know you can.
They walk a few steps toward the door, then Buffy whirls around to face Giles.
Buffy: Please?
Giles: No.
When Buffy takes her first stance with Dawn, she puts her foot down not only at the wrong moment, but also way to hard. And I heart her messing up: It would be perfectly unrealistic if she got it right the first time.
Willow tries to help, but makes things worse. She has known Buffy for so long that she doesn't get that Buffy is trying to take on a new role. Instead she wants to get the old, familiar Buffy back and by doing though accidentally undermines the authority Buffy is trying to gain.
The comment that Buffy needs a break isn't very helpful either, because, sure, Buffy needs a break, but there's no chance she can take one. After all, none of her responsibilities will simply go away.
Willow: Yeah, well, maybe you need a break to de-freak. Hey, you could go to the World's Culture fair if you want to, with me and Tara.
Buffy: (quietly) I don't think so.
Willow: Come on. You can bring Dawn. It'll be fun. Good, educational-type fun in a discipline-y sort of way.
Buffy: I can't do it, Will. Don't worry. It's not like I don't have a life. I do. I have Dawn's life.
What resolves Buffy's difficulties with Dawn for now, is not that Buffy becomes the perfect parental figure over the course of one episode. It's Dawn's fear that she could lose the only family she has.
Dawn: Why? Why should I care about any of this?
Buffy: Because they'll take you away!
Beat. Long shot of the two of them facing off across the table. Dawn unfolds her arms and looks scared.
Dawn: Take me away? What do you mean?
Buffy: (softly) They'll take you away from me. That's what your Principal told me when you weren't in the room. If I can't make you go to school, then I won't be found fit to be your legal guardian.
- Willow & Tara:
They have their first argument - and says a lot about these two. During their argument, felt like stepping in and shaking them both, because really, can't they just say what they mean without back pedalling three times in a single sentence? They are both so ultra-sensitive, utterly afraid of hurting one another or being hurt themselves. What they want is a relationship that's perfectly harmonious at all times. They would rather not talk about any difficult topics, even if they *need* to be discussed.
My experience is that occasional arguments don't hurt a stable relationship/friendship. It's much more risky not to talk about things that bother you.
Tara brings up some valid points. She's worried about Willow becoming more and more powerful, she's worried Willow might not be able to use her powers in a responsible way.
Tara: Oh, but you're way beyond me there! In just a few- I mean ... it frightens me how powerful you're getting.
This isn't something Willow wants to think about, so she deflects the point Tara brings up. She moves the fight in a different direction and essentially states that Tara is afraid Willow might eventually end the relationship in favor of a man.
Tara: I trust you. I just ... (looks down) I don't know where I'm gonna fit in ... in your life when...
Willow: When ... I change back? Yeah, this is a college thing, just a, a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boys' town.
Now Tara has her insecurities and this could be a fear she does indeed have. Nevertheless, my impression is that Willow is neatly avoiding the real issue.
- Glory:
Her scene with Tara is intense and extremely painful to watch. Poor, poor Tara.
This quote is interesting, because I believe it shows us some of Glory's own deepest fears:
Glory: Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain. (Tara looks very scared) It doesn't kill you. What it does ... is make you feel like you're in a noisy little dark room ... (Glory frowns and fidgets uncomfortably) naked and ashamed ... and there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad ... little pinching things that go in your ears ... (Tara begins to cry) and crawl on the inside of your skull. And you know ... that if the noise and the crawling would stop ... that you could remember how to get out.
It's hard to see Tara after she has lost her mind.
What is it with Joss Whedon and insane women? There's River, Drusilla, Cordelia in the season 1 finale, Fred and now Tara. Even Faith is mentally unstable to the extreme.
Willow is willing to take care of Tara and to stay with her even if Tara never regains her sanity.
(A thought that is probably unfair to Willow, but won't leave me alone: Tara losing her mind means she becomes dependent on Willow. Which means she won't be able to leave Willow. It might be that some small part of Willow isn't adverse to that.)
- The showdown:
Willow didn't understand Buffy's situation in the beginning of this episode. And Buffy doesn't understand Willow; she genuinely believes that Willow won't do anything foolish. Once again, Spike is the one who gets it. (He's really good with understanding others, but has a hard time understanding himself.)
Spike: You - so you're saying that a ... powerful and mightily pissed-off witch ... was plannin' on going and spillin' herself a few pints of god blood until you, what, "explained"?
Buffy frowns, looks at Dawn and back at Spike.
Buffy: You think she'd ... no. I told Willow it would be like suicide.
Spike: I'd do it.
Buffy stares at him.
Spike: (looks down at the ground) Right person. Person I loved. (looks at Buffy) I'd do it.
Buffy continues to stare at him as if not getting it.
Dawn: Think, Buffy. If Glory had done that to me.
Buffy glances at Spike, jumps up and races out.
I can understand Willow trying to hurt Glory. Nevertheless, I find it worrying that she knows no restraint. To use a book called Darkest Magick sounds extremely risky. Yes, you get instant power now, but I would think that ultimately there's a price to pay.
We see that Willow will do everything to protect Tara: She's willing to use dark magic and she rushes into action without listening to advice or asking her friends for help.
The final scene is a most wonderful cliffhanger with Glory cornering Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn and finding out due to Tara's vision that Dawn is the Key.
What's lovely is that Tara is the first insane person we've seen who's not afraid of Dawn, but who finds her Key-self beautiful.
- Other:
* Anya's speech made me smile. Do I detect some cleverly hidden criticism of the system in this episode? :-)
Anya: Well, that's right, foreigner. (Giles gives her a look) So I've been reading a lot about the good ol' us of A (she says "us" not "U.S."), embracing the extraordinarily precious ideology that's helped to shape and define it.
Willow: Democracy?
Anya: Capitalism. The free market depends on the profitable exchange of goods for currency. (Xander and Willow exchange an amused look) It's a system of symbiotic beauty apparently lost on these old people. (turns to look back at the customers) Look at 'em. Perusing the shelves. Undressing the merchandise with their eyeballs (turns back to the others) all ogle, no cash. It's not just annoying, it's unAmerican.
Giles comes over to her and peers past her at the customers.
Giles: Appalling. Almost as if they no longer think money can buy happiness.
* I love this scene with Spike and Dawn.
We see that Buffy does trust Spike after what he did in Intervention. Otherwise she wouldn't ask him to protect her sister.
This is also the second time, that Spike reaches out to someone. The first time is when he pats Buffy's shoulder in the final scene of Fool For Love. Here he nearly strokes Dawn's hair to comfort her.
Spike's final comment in this scene is interesting, too: It suggest that it's not necessary to be perfectly good in order to be "okay".
Spike: Hey.
He puts out a hand to touch her hair, but pulls it back quickly as she turns back toward him.
Dawn: You wanna know what I'm scared of, Spike? ... Me. (tearfully) Right now, Glory thinks Tara's the key. But I'm the key, Spike. I am. And anything that happens to Tara ... is 'cause of me. Your bruises, your limp ... that's all me too. I'm like a lightning rod for pain and hurt. (crying) And everyone around me suffers and dies. I ... must be something so horrible ... to cause so much pain ... and evil.
Spike: (firmly) Rot.
Dawn: (teary) What do you know?
Spike: I'm a vampire. I know somethin' about evil. You're not evil.
Dawn: Maybe ... I'm not evil. But I don't think I can be good. (looks up at Spike with a hopeful expression)
Spike: (considers) Well, I'm not good, and I'm okay.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 11:23 pm (UTC)As for crazy women -- it's true, but let's just say it won't always be confined to the women. *doesn't spoil*
I love the Spike & Dawn scene you quoted, a lot.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 04:02 pm (UTC)And Spike & Dawn is wonderful.
I'm wary though, because I know Joss breaks up relationships after a while, never mind if the relationship is love or "just" friendship. Makes me cherish every happy moment. :-)
it's true, but let's just say it won't always be confined to the women.
Well, we have seen crazy Angel in the past who suffers under the burden of his soul. Since I have one big spoiler for Spike (it's hard to avoid when lots of Spike fanfic is categorized as unchipped, chipped, post-xxx), my guess is that he will lose it for a while.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:23 pm (UTC)though it's probably just me :)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:46 pm (UTC)It's the knights that aren't really my thing. :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 11:27 pm (UTC)I always see that could be taken two in another way aswell. He says he's okay, whilst his face is a mass of wounds, so he has suffered ironically enough in act of trying to 'be good' in protecting Dawn form Glory.
As Spike will find out, to be good you have to suffer more then to just stay evil in the 'Jossverse'.
Wonderful observations love. It's wonderful to see the episodes again through a 'new persons eyes'. I look forward to reading more.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 03:57 pm (UTC)Your interpretation works for me as well.
Thanks for the kind words. :-) Since season 2, I've written entries for all Buffy episodes. If you're interested, you can find links to them all in my Memory section.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 11:33 pm (UTC)Buffy having trouble getting the authority figure thing right: quite. It's just different from heading the Scoobies, and being a sister and a mother to Dawn at the same time when she's not yet 21 and Dawn is 14 isn't anything a realistic character could do perfectly.
Willow and Tara: yes, I, too, think Willow managed to deflect the real issue. To delay it, as it will come back, and it has nothing to do with Tara being afraid Willow will return to pure heterosexuality. As for Tara, I think one major reason why she at this point has so much trouble confronting Willow about her worries is that Willow is her heroine as well as her love.
There is a lot of foreshadowing about season 6 in this episode in regards to Willow and Tara, but one can't talk about it without getting spoilery.
Tara and Glory: yes, intense, painful scene. Very well acted.
Joss and madwomen: err, he must have seen Hamlet one too many times as a kid and had a crush on Ophelia?
Anya's speech made me smile. Do I detect some cleverly hidden criticism of the system in this episode?
By all means. More about politics and the ME scribes once you read passages like an amnesiac character saying "I remember who is president and kind of wish I didn't, I just don't remember my name"....
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 04:08 pm (UTC)Very true.
Over the course of season 5, she gradually loses more and more or gets more responsibility until she can hardly go on. What's remarkable is that she gives the college up without whining about it. She never yells at Dawn: Look how much I've given up for you. She also claims that she just drops out for a short while, but I don't really buy it. She would have to drop out for a lot longer. She would want to get a good education for Dawn and someone would have to earn money for it.
is that Willow is her heroine as well as her love.
Excellent point.
Tara also has very low self-esteem, so is usually convinced that she's wrong and everyone else is right.
"I remember who is president and kind of wish I didn't, I just don't remember my name"....
LOL!
By the way, in which year was season 5 broadcast for the first time?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 05:24 am (UTC)Season 5: the way work it out is to remember that the Sunnydale High Yearbook from "Graduation Day" is titled "Class of 1999", so season 4 would be 2000, and season 5 2001.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 06:26 pm (UTC)Somehow I'm sure that the people who complain most about Buffy's whininess would whine constantly if they were in her position. *g*
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 02:12 pm (UTC)Your comments are also very inciteful on Tara and Willow. I know the writers tend to hold them up as a healthy relationship, but I'd argue that. From where I sit, Tara seems to constantly give in while Willow controls.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 03:50 pm (UTC)Both of them are very insecure.
Willow has become more and more self-confident since season 1, but the way I see it she's self-confident regarding her powers. Apart from that she's still scared of not being good enough.
And Tara is no longer as shy as she used to be. She has connected a bit to the other Scoobies, but she still sees herself as inferior to nearly everyone else.
They both need to learn to talk about the difficult issues. They need to learn that you can disagree about some things and still have a relationship. And Willow really needs to learn to avoid subjects she doesn't want to talk about.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 02:04 am (UTC)I saw that fight with Tara as a sign how little Willow can stand it that Tara'd dare disagree with her on anything. She reacted the same way to Oz in s4. Willow can't stand it when her partner disagrees with her.
It's one of many reasons why I refuse to even read Spike/Willow, if they ever got together, she'd destroy him.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 01:22 am (UTC)Willow's problem is her very low self-esteem. Even when she has all this power, she believes that she's worthless underneath. She feels that without magic she is nothing.
So any sort of criticism hurts her deeply. She believes the other person has finally seen her real insignificant self and will leave her. (See Willow's nightmare in Restless: She dreams that Buffy reveals her true self - insecure season 1 Willow - and all her friends turn against her.)
In Willow you have a person with no self-esteem and a huge amount of power - a very dangerous combination.
Willow is not among my favorite characters, but I find her very well drawn and intriguing to analyse.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 03:22 pm (UTC)I find Glory squeezing Tara's hand symbolic. Glory takes a gentle loving gesture and turns it into something vicious. This can stand for love becoming a burden, a stranglehold: For the one who loves and/or for the one who is loved. True love is finding the right balance between holding on and letting go.
Interesting observation. Usually fans focus on hand-clasping positive moments. I never thought of Glory clasping Tara's hand as of a symbol of Willow's future responsibility. Very neat.
What is it with Joss Whedon and insane women?
I think we'll be able to explore this issue without spoiling much after you watch 617 Normal Again.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 03:54 pm (UTC)Yes, I think the hand-crushing could refer to Willow and Tara on a symbolic level. "Once More With Feeling" suggest that Tara will leave Willow and I'm curious how Willow will react. (I'm thinking of how she went after Xander with an axe when the lovespell was at work in season 2 or how she started cursing Oz when she realised he had spent a night with Veruka.)
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Date: 2006-05-26 04:11 pm (UTC)I don't think that Willow consciously deflects Tara's point re: magic, first because I think she honestly thought Tara's fear concerned her sexuality, and second because I'm not convinced it wasn't what Tara had in mind either. After all, magic (Willow-Tara magic) was a metaphor for sex at least until that point, and the equation magic=Tara=sex must have been ingrained in Willow's mind by then, and now I've written that the memory-rape sounds even less metaphorical than before.
She's worried about Willow becoming more and more powerful, she's worried Willow might not be able to use her powers in a responsible way.
That's not how I understand it, particularly given Tara's admission that "I don't know where I'm gonna fit in ... in your life when...", which, to me, means that she's genuinely afraid that Willow will leave her behind; that she'll get bored of her, or even that she'll find that it was 'just a phase'.
As for Tara's sanity, to be fair to Willow, she says in The Gift that she's been trying to find a way to restore Tara's sanity, so I'm not sure she was even remotely relieved that insane!Tara would mean Tara wouldn't leave her. Willow's more into fixing things she thinks need being fixed, hence the resurrection and the memory spells.
BTW, I think this episode scores one for the magic-as-drugs arc (against the idea that Willow's problem has everything to do with power and control, and not much with actual magic); when she mopes about the argument and she panicks that Tara might be leaving her (as she thinks Giles is saying, misinterpretating him), turning to magic is not her first instinct. Or her second. In fact, she never seems to consider the option. So I'd say that the turning point must have been the summer, during which the only way she found to fulfill the leader's duties was to rely heavily on magic (magic may or may not have been a part of why she was chosen as the Boss of the Scoobies at all).
As for the showdown... Sign me in every time a character does something they shouldn't to get vengeance because one they love was hurt. What she does isn't much more foolish than what Giles did in Passion - and anyway I doubt that she was seeing any farther than "I. Owe. You. Pain." Besides, would we have more respect, more sympathy, more love for Willow if she didn't do the stupid thing, if instead she really did agree with Buffy and did nothing but wait? What she's doing is the human thing to try. (And I'm aware that I'm on shaky moral grounds as I say that. Hence the 'try'.) Of course, this means Spike is the one to get it. *inserts dance of glee here*
Regarding the title, I think it could also concern the Buffy and Spike interaction; he's been tortured for her, and she drops the most important responsibility into his lap, and it is a reward.
Also, "You - so you're saying that a ... powerful and mightily pissed-off witch ... was plannin' on going and spillin' herself a few pints of god blood until you, what, "explained"?" is the best line evah. (Including Giles' sardonic comment regarding money.) But I think this actually proves he understands himself quite well; he's love's bitch, and he knows it.
This post in no way makes me a Willow and/or Spike fangirl. *denial*
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Date: 2006-08-06 01:25 pm (UTC)Well, it works if you think about the details. Something that makes me squeamish. But: When your hand is crushed, your bones will start sticking through your skin eventually... *shivers*
Willow's more into fixing things she thinks need being fixed, hence the resurrection and the memory spells.
You make some excellent points regarding Willow. After reading your comment, I feel I understand her much better.
Even after season 6, I'm not hating Willow. I found her not very interesting in the beginning of the show, but my views are beginning to change. She gains a lot of depth during the series which also now influences my view of her in earlier episodes.