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Date Posted: 09:36:50 09/10/07 Mon
Author: Age
Subject: Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 7
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 6" on 09:35:02 09/10/07 Mon

Okay, the symbol on the chest of the dead guys in the church; since analyzing much of issue two and three, Ive come to the conclusion that many of the things Joss Whedon has had his characters say about it are clues, but the symbol may say, if it were instead a title, Operation Resurrection. It represents Volls desire to protect citizens in his rigidly male (might) dominated way, i.e. resurrection of male (might) dominated society in order to get everybody up in the air, so to speak, like the plane in his office, up and above the dangers of the world like gods. (Look at the panel in issue two when we first see into the underground complex: the elevator shaft looks like a phallic symbol. Voll and the Suit are going down. From the top (where they can watch everyone and control them) down. Top down.)

Lets turn to the panels of Dawn stuck inside the castle(a mans home is his) Dawn, as I said above, represents the public that needs/wants to be protected because shes not a slayer, not a protector. In a male (might) dominated society she would be the woman (individual) inadvertently kept prisoner as a means of providing her with safety. Not only this, but shed be the imprisoned feminine, kept controlled, jailed, lest her feminizing influence get out and change men into women, and then who would do the protecting, or from a different standpoint shes the individualizing emotionally empowering influence that would render the need for the top man/top down government unnecessary because adults would accept some risk. By concentrating all her focus on training the slayers Buffy is ignoring, not seeing her sister, not seeing the person because Buffy is only focused on eliminating future threat.

The conversation between Buffy and Dawn represents the breakdown in trust between those governing and its citizens, between sister and sister in an egalitarian society as a more top down, male-female relationship of protection, surveillance of citizens as potential threats begins. Dawn wont talk to Buffy, i.e. citizens are keeping secrets from the government and cannot be trusted; and Buffy, the government doesnt seem to care about the individual (Dawns left out) but only about securing the future from threat as the slayer training is meant to symbolize, i.e. the right of the state to protect its citizens takes precedence over individual freedom as symbolized by Dawns being cooped up in the castle. Her being on her backside is symbolic of the public not being able to move on. Why? Because in relying on the male (might) way in response to the public, Buffy, the government, cannot provide the more feminine (emotional) way and allow Dawn to communicate her feelings. Note that Buffy starts out on the same level as Dawn, representing governing within an egalitarian society; but as she talks to Dawn, she moves up above her and talks down to her, representing the creation of a more top down relationship in government structure. Note that Buffy as representing those who are governing says she has things to do, and turns her back on Dawn, the public as individuals, because securing them from future attacks is all she has in her sights.

Turning the page, we get a view of the fortress mentality gripping these citizens in which they dont feel at home in anymore as the Scottish locale is meant to symbolize (Buffy and Dawn are American, hence they are used to create the idea and feeling of being away from home) because its not quite got that feeling of being the same open place it was. There is, as Dawns dialogue on the previous page suggests, a chill in the air. It doesnt quite feel such a free society as it did before the attack. In fact the Scottish locale implies a society from the past, (again Buffy is American) as many came from Europe to America during a time when the societies they left were less egalitarian, less democratic and certainly male (might) dominated. What is the thing Buffy as governing representative has to do-be the look out, the Watcher on the ramparts in case of another attack. What loss is she lamenting? It is expressed in the uncluttered moors: the more open society in which, because citizens felt naively secure, there could be more personal freedom to move. Thus Buffys lack of the personal is meant to symbolize its being taken away.

Finally, Amys appearance at the end, angry about what Buffy did, may represent how citizens felt about the attack, certainly as her emotion developed at the bottom of the crater, which Voll thinks is a terrorist attack, and may be a further reinforcement of Volls notion that the feminizing culture was responsible for making the society weak; hence Amys desire to kill Buffy. That Amy, an American (citizen of a free society) woman (individual) is on her knees, and totally covered in wounds, represents how such citizens might have felt. It also represents the kind of wound this attack could have done to the sisterly more open feminized society. It will be, as her position on the floor and the shadow behind her represent, a menace to the kind of society she as an American woman (individual) represents.

Note that on the page where Buffy is about to go and see Dawn, the images are tilted away from the next page to represent the split between those in power and the public. Note also that Dawn is facing back to the left, a regressive direction opposite to the direction we read in. Note the barrier between Buffy and Dawn is the one erected between government and the individual. Note that Buffy on that page is standing on the castle, the structure that she is symbolically creating to keep the public safe; while Dawn is on grass.

One last thing, back on the page where Buffy was fighting the demons, she has her back turned to the one shes attacking and gets whipped back. This could be a symbolic representation of the idea that those in government have to always be vigilant, cant turn their backs to terrorists for a second lest a secret attack happens, and citizens lives, as represented by the cross and candles, get destroyed again. Her killing of the demon through a physical (male/might) act of bringing the crucifix down, i.e., top down, and associating that with fear, signifies the more top down patriarchal approach of some who use religions to make people follow rules. God then gets used by some as the equivalent of Big Brother, the omnipresent Watcher.


Okay, lets move to issue two and three.

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