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Date Posted: 09:26:14 09/10/07 Mon
Author: Age
Subject: Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 3
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 2" on 09:24:13 09/10/07 Mon

Okay, that’s the general preamble over. Let’s get to the comic books…

In light of the satiric look at trying to stop future terrorist attack only through might, marginalizing the emotions, I have to do the following:

Firstly, give you a run down for clarity’s sake of the major metaphorical characters that create the satiric theme.

Secondly, go back over issue one adding new interpretation of images as they relate to the new theme.

Thirdly, offer a look at the metaphorical set up of issues two and three firstly as a set of statements by Joss Whedon pointing out what happens if securing from future attack is the only way of dealing with an attack and the pain it caused from loss of security; and, secondly, as an examination of citizens moving on after a terrorist attack, in order to reinforce the folly of reducing society to one that values might only as a means of dealing with the pain of a terrorist attack by preventing one in the future as members of such a free society would be emotionally mature enough to resume their lives after a time.

Fourthly, show the metaphorical set up of the Women’s Movement in the first ten pages of issue two.

Fifthly, show the metaphorical set up of the resurrection of the male dominated society as a consequence of what security concerns are doing in General Voll’s pages in issue two.

Sixthly, show the metaphorical representation of the training of the new slayers.

(Due to reworking of the postings, the sequence of these items is not the same; and, I’ve offered only an abbreviated version of some.)

Firstly, the Metaphorical Players.

Most of the human beings represent citizens in a free society; some have specialized meanings that I’ll get to when I cover them individually. It’s important to realize that General Voll, despite his desire to kill Buffy, is a human being. It’s because he’s the representation of the consequence of the desire to keep people safe.

Let’s start with Buffy.

She’s our beloved title character, the good gal. So, anything she might do represents what’s done as a caring response to the threat of attack. Her being a woman also symbolizes the caring of one individual to another, as the desire to protect is. This is important to realize because I don’t think Joss Whedon is conspiracy mongering here, just pointing out the pitfalls of moving towards the use of might only in regards to security.

Buffy’s an American citizen. She can therefore stand for citizens in a free and democratic government, just as she’s the leader of the new slayer organization. But, she doesn’t represent any particular government, political party or person; her nationality used only symbolically for the purpose of satire.

She’s a slayer; therefore, she highlights protection. In her concentrating solely on training the slayers, i.e. preparing them for attack or defense, she is used, by Joss Whedon, to represent what might happen if preoccupation with instituting measures to stop a future terrorist attack were implemented based on might only.

She’s an individual, a person, a human being. While she may represent a citizen in a free and democratic government, that citizen would be subject to the same authoritarian scrutiny as all others if that society valued might above all else. Having Buffy attacked shows how the implementation of such a government structure would backfire on the individual.

She’s sister to Dawn and the slayers, representing a feminine (i.e. emotionally empowered adult society) which comes under attack by the measures taken by Voll’s covert, authoritarian agents. Buffy is its cultural icon.

Note, I’ve probably said this in another place further along, but Dawn, then Buffy and finally Willow as individuals and as symbols of the new feminizing culture all come under attack in one form or another, Dawn through ‘imprisonment’ in the castle, Buffy through sacrifice, Willow through torture. They, one after the other, represent the isolated sister, individual, who must be saved to recoup the culture of inclusion and connection which is symbolized by the connecting pages of the ‘Women’s Movement’ at the beginning of issue two.

Let’s move to Dawn.

Dawn is also an American citizen. But, she’s not a slayer and not in charge; therefore she can be used to represent the public in a free society that needs/wants protecting. She has made herself big for several reasons. Firstly, Joss Whedon uses her size to represent how the general public in such a society might feel about themselves after a terrorist attack: that they’ve become BIG targets for future attacks; her nudity and her bathing i.e. when she’s doing something private and she can’t be looking out for herself are also used to create the idea of vulnerability to attack. Secondly, because Buffy, the citizen in power, is concentrating so much on security, Joss Whedon wants to show how this will lead to the neglect of the individual and to his being done away with, as Dawn accuses Buffy of trying to do by trying to ship her off to Berkeley; Dawn’s made herself big to be noticed as a way of representing how people in government might not see the individual anymore, as Buffy hasn’t seen her sister for a while. Dawn’s insecurity about not being a real person is used also to suggest the possibility of personhood being taken away. In fact, on the page where Xander discusses Dawn’s issues with Buffy in comic two, Buffy, in her dream, unconvincingly states that it’s her fault. Here, Joss Whedon is suggesting, I think, that those in government may not be at fault, but are responding to the fear and anger, as represented by Dawn’s, of the public, and that responsibility for any change in government structure must rest squarely on the shoulders of the electorate. Perhaps part of Dawn’s anger accompanied by her big size (target) is also meant to represent the public’s anger at not being protected, prompting those in power to do something about it.

Dawn, through her name, represents the beginning of the new feminized (read: emotionally empowered adult) society (this may not necessarily refer to the dawning of a feminized society, but symbolically to the next generation’s becoming adults, the dawn of their time as the emotionally empowered adults carrying on the human race) which would be put on hold by the terrorist attack just as Dawn is stuck in a fortress (mentality) (the castle in Scotland) as represented by being too Big (a target) to go on, i.e. resume the kind of open individualistic movement that such a society requires because citizens feel too insecure about being attacked.

Dawn is Buffy’s sister. As the public, she represents the idea that those being governed are equal in power to those doing the governing through democratic elections, freedom of opinion and the press and by due process where guilt must be proven. A free and democratic society as much as humanly possible is a family of individuals, sisters.

Dawn’s age may have some meaning too. It may mean a return of the public to being stuck in adolescence, not being able to go back to their adult movement within society as Dawn’s move to Berkeley would symbolize. She just can’t get on her feet.

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