Enter All Ye Who Seek Knowledge

Buffy is my security blanket.

[ironmaidenhead]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 5.18 | “Intervention” 6.11 | “Gone”

[ineffablyferalarchive]

it’s honestly so baffling to me that buffy the vampire slayer isn’t a more popular show among people of my generation (i’m gen z). the main characters are a gorgeous, pun-obsessed girl who will wreck your shit without hesitation, a lesbian witch who also happens to be a computer genius, the biggest himbo who ever existed, and their exasperated british librarian father figure, who all need to use their two shared brain cells to save the world every few weeks. these poor chumps also have to tolerate the nonstop clownery of two vampires, one of whom has the social skills of a stale loaf of bread and is the very definition of Brooding™, and the other of whom is snarky as hell and severely emotionally unstable. my point is, it’s absolutely glorious and i better see more of y’all gen z people watching it, because i’m coming for your kneecaps if you don’t😌

[slayer-the]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 3.21 “Graduation Day, Part I”

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

If I remember correctly, David Boreanaz really skidded by accident and they just left it in.

[impalementation]

has anyone ever talked about the very cool parallels between gone and prophecy girl? first, there’s the repetition of “it sounds adorable” re: buffy’s haircut, which parallels the repetition of “i like your dress” in prophecy girl. in both cases, the first two repetitions happen before you know whether buffy is going to live or die, and the last repetition happens after she survives. second is the use of the line “i don’t wanna die.” in prophecy girl, buffy is terrified of death, and the fact that she is being forced to die is an awful tragedy. but in season six, and especially gone, buffy isn’t terrified of death. she yearns for it, identifies with it. at the very least, she craves an ambiguous escape from life. so buffy repeating one of the most powerful lines from prophecy girl at the end of gone (“i don’t wanna die”) isn’t just about her not wanting to die as a general part of her depression arc, it’s about her trying to find a piece of that righteous desire to live that she had five years ago. 

the fact that both episodes are concerned with buffy’s mortality and desire to live also ties into that repetition of the compliments about buffy’s appearance. caring about appearance is something people think of as superficial, but having a physical existence and getting to care about it in a superficial way is a basic part of being alive. it’s the little things that make you feel like you exist. that make you feel like you’re in control of your life and identity. and in both prophecy girl and gone, buffy doesn’t feel in control of those things. the dress is a last hurrah at getting to be a teenage girl, and the haircut is an attempt to escape her current identity (“just make me…different”), and the compliments about them become absurd by contrast. what’s the point of buffy looking nice if she’s invisible or isn’t going to the dance? if she’s going to die? but by the end of both episodes, once buffy has refound some part of her aliveness (literally, figuratively, or both), the final repetition of the compliment signals that that’s what’s taken place.

[impalementation]

re: grave i also think it’s cool that every character in that episode is wearing black except for xander (blue) and dawn (green). black is obviously associated with death, and the grave. whereas blue and green are associated with life. water and flora and such. which fits because it’s xander who calls willow back from the brink to life. given the season’s fire motif, you might also think of xander as water that is calming willow’s destructiveness (“proserpexa…let the cleansing fires from the depths burn away the suffering souls and bring sweet death.”). and dawn has represented “life” all season long, so as buffy accepts dawn’s help and involvement, she is metaphorically accepting life–and growth, and newness, and those other things one might associate with green.

[ifeveristoday]

which also explains why neither buffy nor giles could defeat willow they’re both in black they’re both too close to death to be of help

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

also when Dawn & Buffy crawl out of the grave, like a flower blooming (in the dawn sunrise)

[dawniesummers-archive-blog]

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

This gets funnier every year

[bisummers]

This is what Willow has to say after her break up with Tara, the one where Tara tells her she violated her mind the same way Glory did, by making her forget their fight and thus controlling her emotions towards her. The same break up where she observes she fixes everything to her liking, including people, including her. 

[bisummers]

@onegirlinalltheworld i saw your old anti willow post and it reminded of this post i made about willow and how much i agree with you

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

This is super important, because so much of the problem in their relationship was Willow’s descent into an immediate-satisfaction control-freak. She (like many of us) wanted things to always kind of go her way, satisfy her wants and needs, and to have that occur with minimal effort and minimal consequences (I mean, to be fair, who doesn’t want that?).

The problem arises when she starts to use magic to achieve this, because magic exists outside the realm of reality. Its existence accelerates and expands every possibility. Willow is now truly able to cater everything to her wants and needs, and that is the true dangerous power of magic. She does what is easy, rather than what is right.

We see this all the way back in Lovers Walk when she attempts to do a de-lusting spell on herself and Xander to help them control their totally normal teenage hormones that are “getting in the way” of them making intelligent decisions regarding their relationships. They run into the very normal problem of “I want to follow my sexual desires but right now they are directed at not-my-boyfriend/girlfriend”. And Xander (who previously wanted to use a love spell to solve his problems) has learned that you have to just work through it the hard way. And Willow tries to work through it the easy way.

Willow’s character is about control. As she becomes more confident in herself as a person (following Buffy’s introduction to her life), she starts to take on more leadership roles in the Scooby Gang. She maintains skills that no one else has (computer system hacking, and later magic), which makes her invaluable and gives her an interesting amount of control within the group (think about how important it was from a non-friendship standpoint for Buffy to trade the Box of Gavrox for Willow in Choices). 

And working through hard relationship things is not something that she can 100% control. And dealing with another person’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions is also not 100% in her control. And now she has the means to force it into her control.

And that is as close to rape as you can get without the sexual assault element. And unfortunately, it really should be considered rape to a certain degree. This goes beyond toxicity or forced control. This is a manipulation of another person for your own satisfaction.

And while it makes for a truly interesting character arc, and a really strong point of conflict between friends and lovers, as a fan of “early Willow” it sucks so much to see this happen. Because you want to believe that she was not capable of such darkness and vile action. And it sucks so much to watch her refuse to recognize her actions, and lie to herself in this manner show above. She’s too smart to not know that she’s wildly in the wrong.

But the more you look back at it, there is a natural progression to this point eventually. They had been building it up for a while, with everything from the de-lusting spell (Lovers Walk, 3.08), to expanding the power of “tiny Tinkerbell light” (Out of My Mind, 5.04), to the rank, arrogant amateur conversation between Willow and Giles (Flooded, 6.04). 

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

Hiatus

Hi guys.

I’ve been swamped with a new job, moving cross-country, and generally just trying to be an adult. I haven’t had the time or energy to write about Buffy lately. I hope this is something I can revisit again in the near future. I have really enjoyed this project, which I think I’ve been working on for the last 7 or so years. YEARS!

Thank you guys so much. Please don’t unfollow me! I should be back!

(honestly, do whatever you want, but I would appreciate you guys hanging around)

[starryeyesxx]

[unrestricted]

Dawn Summers from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 7x12 “Potential”

[slayerdaily]

Why don’t you orbit out of my light?

[starryeyesxx]

[slayerdaily]

The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. Be brave. Live. {insp}

[buffy-screencaps]

[unrestricted]

You can’t walk around pretending you’re less than you are. It wouldn’t be right for you to hold back.

[elizadusku-archive]

gif meme ★ cordy + 07. outfits for @deeptheon

[starryeyesxx]

[withoutpassionwedbetrulydead]

Never, ever forget that Riley Finn did this. This goes against his training (something he does with even more conviction and oomph later when he clocks Colonel Macnamara). This goes against every “good ole farm boy from Iowa” trope that he is supposed to embody. “Defending Buffy’s honor” is totally within his tropes, but this goes against the “military is about taking orders, not questioning them” theme he has running concurrently.

Never forget this. Because as frustrating as Riley can be, and as bland as he can be, and as scummy as his departure and circumstances were... he was a good person who wasn’t afraid of defending people in a manner that everyone understands.