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Date Posted: 09:01:43 01/25/06 Wed
Author: manwitch
Subject: Sounds great. Wish I could've been there
In reply to: Kevin 's message, "Buffy Fest 06'-When Buffy Ruled the World (and when and why she didn't)" on 16:21:38 01/20/06 Fri

Interesting stuff. Let's start quick with where we agree.

The Trio fell flat. I don't in principle object to the darkness of Season 6, but it needed something to balance it, and the Trio wadn it.

Character development, except Dawn, seemed weak after Season 5. My own opinion is that time was wasted on the failed effort at comic relief when it could have been spent on the characters.

The loss of Giles and the loss of Tara in Season 7 were blows that were tough to overcome. I think the show did an admirable job of handling those losses, but they are just too glaring. The losses of Oz and Angel had nothing like the same impact. (There are reasons for that, that I could go into, but still).

I suspect Marti was not quite up to what they were trying to do. In her defense, she's being rated against Joss, and during two seasons when they were dealing with some pretty difficult material, but whoever came up with the Trio, and whoever cast them, and whoever wrote for them, and whoever allowed them to make it to the final print, just wasn't providing the service we had come to expect.

When I have the priviledge of fast forwarding through the trio and or the potentials, seasons 6&7 contain some first-rate material. Afterlife is, I think, a great episode. OMWF and Tabula Rasa rank with the best of them. The first episode where the trio is playing their tricks on Buffy is actually funny, and the last time the trio had any justification being on the show. Entropy, sans trio, is some of the best material ever on Buffy. I'm sorry, but I like Seeing Red. There are a number of episodes in season 7 that I really enjoy, including Lessons, Same Time Same Place, Selfless, Help, & Him. Conversations with Dead People is special, like Becoming/Restless/Hush special. Pretty nearly anyway. Potential, Empty House, Chosen all pretty darned good. So, its not like there was a huge dropoff. Its just that somehow they don't feel the same.

I would disagree that seasons 6&7 are a different series. I have argued at mind-numbing length that Buffy is a single story, conceived from the get-go to be in seven parts. Its a story, I argue, patterned on some Eastern religious meditations, matching in considerable detail the seven chakras of kundalini yoga, the story of the Buddha's enlightenment (3 trials, three watches of the night, omniscience 3+3+1=7). I'm told it matches to the seven circles of the Cretan Labyrinth, although I'm not conversant with that. In matching these ancient stories, if that is what they were doing, Buffy's death is necessitated in part 5. And parts 6 and 7 necessarily deal with very difficult conceptual material, such as the recognition of the divine presence in the world, even in its horrors, and the dissolution of all ego. It seems that Buffy attempted to translate such concepts to the screen. Season 6 always makes me think of lines from a George Harrison song (his commitment to hindu spirituality I think is well known):

But because of all their tears,
Their eyes can't hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them.
Isn't it a pity?

As for the efficacy of Christian symbols, well that seems to be sustained to the degree required for Vampire stories. It does seem that for the cross or crucifix and holy water and churches to have the effect they do, that Jesus might have some tangible power or standing in the Buffyverse. Whether he does or not, they (the characters) don't speak of it very directly.

That said, Joss is an atheist. That means, at the very least, he rejects the historical and scientific truthclaims made about Jesus. It seems clear from the content of his shows that he would subscribe to the spiritual content of Jesus' message if he could separate it from claims to historical veracity.

Anyways, it seems to me that Season 4 is a comment on Western religion, particularly Old Testament religion, and seems to argue that we nod to it for what it was and recognize that it is not the source of our spiritual incarnation today.

Season 5 Buffy becomes Christ, and the show by extension, says repeatedly in Season 5 that Buffy is us. So the show argues that we are all christ when we recognize ourselves to be Buffy, and live the same way, making the same sacrifices, that they made. In many ways that's a nice message. I would expect some Christians to find it so, and others to consider it blasphemous.

Season 6 shows us that the divine power that exists in Buffy, also inhabits the entirety of the world. By the end of the season, we see it is even in Spike, the demon incarnate, the absolute opposite of Buffy. This idea is easily reconciled with Eastern thought, but less so with western, which believes that the good must struggle against the evil, that god inspires the good and satan inspires the evil. But Buffy season 6 and hinduism/buddhism seem to say that the divine is in all things, regardless of our perception of them. Which would of course match to Jesus' remark about the lord sends his rain to fall on the good as well as the evil. Love them all.

In Season 7, Caleb serves a function, at least part of which is to make what I believe is Joss's point that the binary world of good vs. evil, and the victory of good over evil, is not really what we are ultimately after. What we want is a recognition of our unity behind the masks of otherness. The character of Caleb is used to plant our commitment to a binary world in our religious traditions, in the need to eradicate sin and sinners. We end up with a bifid Caleb, which seems appropriate. But Buffy ends up unified with Spike and with the world.

So I think there are strong religious tones (over or under is your preference) in the last four seasons of Buffy. They tend to favor Eastern religious philosophy over western religious doctrine and institutions, which isn't necessarily a fair comparison. I think the language of Jesus, what Jesus actually said, can be matched with the spirit of Buffy down the line. But I think some very specific points on religion and spirituality are being made consciously in these latter seasons. The show's efforts to deal with such themes is, I think, a plus. Even if we disagree with its conclusions, it respects that these are things we want to think about. Of course, Caleb could have been made an interesting, multi-dimensional character, like the Mayor was. I think the failure to write Caleb as a full human, and Warren as well, is a large part of why seasons 6& 7 feel schizophrenic.

And finally, I don't think the trio was very funny.

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