After watching the last three episodes, I am even fuzzier on how Whedon and his writers are trying to portray Buffy. On one hand, you have Buffy the poor student, and it isn't simply a matter of being too busy slaying to study (though that certainly plays a part.) Buffy admits that school, books, and learning aren't her thing. She even admits in a previous episode that prior to being called as the Slayer, she was even flightier than Cordelia. So how does this non-reading, C (or D or F) student make references like she did in "Enemies" where she says that Faith "makes Godot look punctual." Her witty sarcasm and clipped remarks are frequently filled with these sorts of highbrow literary and cultural references that seem out of sync with her life experience. So what is Whedon trying to say? There's more to Buffy than meets the eye? I get that, but where does she obtain this vast knowledge that seems to escape her when other people make these same sorts of references?
On the flip side, I find some of these Buffy inconsistencies quite compelling. Here you have a young woman who has faced demons and tons of otherwordly horrors, and yet she still manages a very high school jealousy over Faith and Angel in "Enemies" and "Earshot." The immaturity behind this insecurity is highlighted by its juxaposition against Angel's age and experience. Angel has seen it all and done it all, while Buffy is obviously feeling her way through this. She even tries to read Angel's mind in "Earshot" in order to determine his thoughts and feelings about Faith. This serves as a sharp reminder that the girl who has had to grow up too fast ("Anne") is still exactly that, a girl. She may kill baddies and fight demons, but ulitimately, she's not the best at human relationships (as was discussed in the Leon article.)
On a separate and unrelated note, I have to mention the Mayor, who is quite possibly the most entertaining Buffy bad guy yet. His G-rated quips contrast sharply with Faith's morality-free lifestyle/attitude. I am intrigued that the one person in Sunnydale who is most concerned with living a good, clean life is also the one that plans to destroy the town and its inhabitants. This would seem to echo my previous suggestion that Whedon is against any authority that establishes any external/artificial set of rules and regulations. The Mayor could stand in for government, organized religion, even heavy handed parenting. It is also significant that once again the rebellious Faith has sought out someone to tell her what to do. Certainly she has chosen a leader more in line with what she wants, but still, the Mayor treats her much like a father would, and she submits willingly to his control.
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Dr. Rose says:
ReplyDeleteAnother insightful commentary. As I read all of the comments about authority figures and bad parents on the show, and the iconoclastic tone of the series, I think that even though Giles has failed Buffy on at least one occasion, their relationship is still a model of the way these things are supposed to work. It always strikes me as a more organic, evolving kind of relationship, rather than authoritarian for its own sake (as with, say, Wesley).