VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 12[3]45678910 ]


[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:29:07 09/10/07 Mon
Author: Age
Subject: Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 4
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 3" on 09:26:14 09/10/07 Mon

General Voll.

General Voll brings in the male imagery required to show what the male (might) approach to feeling safe again would bring: male (might) dominated society in which the feminine (individual empowerment) is marginalized. Most of the imagery associated with him is phallic in nature including the scar on his chest which could be interpreted as a flaccid or rising phallus. The scar could be represented in words such as Operation Resurr-erection, as he tries to resurrect male (might) dominated society. His operation is covert for two reasons: firstly, it represents the unseen, i.e. unforeseen, consequence of Buffy’s caring actions; hence, Voll is still a human being, not a demon. It also warns us of the covert operations that such a male (might) dominated form of governing would employ such as assassination and torture.

Amy.

Amy is a relic of the past, a covert agent working for Voll, one of the many images of resurrection that are associated with Voll’s meaning. Her resurrection from the Sunnydale crater (which Whedon uses Voll to associate with a terrorist attack) means that she is what such a terrorist attack is threatening to resurrect from the past. What is it? She’s the resurrection of the one and only slayer, the (as the dialogue in issue two actually states) the twisted sister, (again sister doesn’t mean just women, but any individual under the one top man) who is twisted back into resurrecting the past and against her own family, i.e. individuals. Voll has given her magic from his arsenal, physically empowered her, just as the first Watchers Council infused a woman with demonic power and sent her off alone.

(In the series, Buffy, the slayer who lives because she’s raised by a liberated mother and a male watcher, was used to subvert the might dominated process by having her refuse to let go of emotional relationships where her demon aspect became a symbol for the physical that women weren’t allowed to embrace; and where the act of slaying was subverted from its violent discarding of the remnants of the emotional human being, the vampire, as a form of control, and made to service the restoration of the human being in as much as the vampire represented an emotional problem to be faced and slain as an inner demon. In this way, Whedon was able to show that having the courage to face inner demons with a little emotional help from family and friends would negate the later need to literally dispose of human beings, perpetual alienated adolescents, who were unable to cope with life but had to prey on others, using others as parental resource, just as the metaphor of the inner demon negated the literal destruction of the vampire. Disposing of the vampire is thus done metaphorically by not creating one in the first place as the human being slays his or her inner demon on the way to becoming an emotionally mature caring individual, an adult; the exact opposite of the vampire. A society of emotionally mature human beings is much more favourable than one where immature adolescents who fall back on animal instinct are simply trying to stick it to one another as the demonized other as represented by the adolescent slayer and vampire as both demon based, and where one actually carries a stick to stick it to the other before the vampire can stick his fangs in her and use her as a resource in what is tantamount to a culture of mistrust where might alone is valued because no one can or wants to open up to others.

In effect, both vampire and slayer portray a culture of mistrust in that both are in disguise, the vampire in human disguise coming out at night to maximize his/her chances of remaining alive, while the slayer is disguised as an easy target, luring the vampire into a trap. The slayer’s seeming vulnerability used literally as a strength to get the upper hand as any might based activity in a culture of mistrust is meant to achieve shows that anything goes when there is no trust, including the very vulnerable openness required for emotional expression; however, Whedon subverts this also by having the vampire represent an inner demon, an emotional problem to be slain, thus restoring through metaphor the role of human vulnerability and its association with emotional expression. In this way, the use of the female adolescent as slayer works in two ways: firstly, in literally finishing off the remnants of the emotional human being, the vampire, the female turned away from emotional nurturing to become solitary warrior and policeman represents the destruction of the human being when the emotional person is not considered; secondly, the use of the female adolescent as slayer of metaphorical inner demons represents the opposite: the emotional maturing of a human being on her way to adulthood.)

Amy is a further representation of the resurrection of the society that marginalizes the emotional individual. Amy is the one and only slayer and Voll her watcher as he sends her to kill Buffy because Voll, in his being the male imagery representing the male (might) approach that caring has brought these citizens to, has demonized Buffy, the iconic representation of the feminized emotional culture, as an emasculator of men rendering them unable to defend citizens, thus turning the public as represented by Dawn, the dawn of that new emotionally developed society, into women and simply big targets for men to attack. Voll feels that a return to a male (might) dominated society is the only way to save citizens from attack. To do this he has to slay the demon Buffy, the demon of feminizing (emotionally empowering) culture.

Warren, as a male, gun toting woman (again woman represents emotional individual) killing adolescent who was tortured by Willow, represents the worst that such a movement back to a male (might) dominated society could bring. If Voll’s scar on his skin is an indication of what he wants to achieve, Warren’s skinless condition, with his being the resurrected undead, shows us all the horror that lies underneath. Willow’s torture of him is used to create the idea that what goes around comes around; no one would be immune.

Renee (which is French for reborn) represents the rebirth of the more open feminized (i.e. empowered emotionally mature society) after citizens gain some perspective following the terrorist attack. She’s wounded to represent what might happen to that society, but neither she nor Buffy is killed because the citizens of that free society would not kill off their individuality for the sake of feeling secure.

Xander. A quick note about Xander. On the page in issue two when he’s talking with Dawn, he is quite small in comparison to her. He is thus representing the opposite of Big Brother, being small brother to her, the representative in that panel of the empowered individual; the opposite therefore of ‘Big Brother’ Angelus and dead little sister (for sister read individual.) [I have a full analysis of Liam’s turning in the other material where yet again it is not seeing the growing emotional individual that leads to the creation of the vampire, which in turn symbolically portrays the destructive nature of protection and control.] Xander’s and Dawn’s pages come at the end of the ‘Women’s Movement’ pages as symbolic of what such a movement (of individuals) brings. Note that Dawn is washing to represent what one does after a journey (to a free society); she’s naked to represent the individual unadulterated by male (might) only dominance; she’s free to be herself; and to show she feels safe as a person among people like Xander who respects her privacy. She’s in a natural setting outside to represent the end of imprisonment. She’s using the water because it shows the individual’s ownership of her own em-power-ment (as opposed to the liquid of the tea being consumed by another.) This use also underscores Joss Whedon’s belief that individuals can act as adults with their power, Dawn, washing herself, i.e. making herself clean in order to preserve her own hygiene for herself and for interaction with other human beings. Hygiene symbolizes the space we create for others as they can come towards us rather than being pushed away by our looking and smelling awful.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]


Replies:




Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.