buffysummers:3.15 | 7.07 @buffysummersThis is the one character flaw in the whole show that’s
buffysummers:3.15 | 7.07 @buffysummersThis is the one character flaw in the whole show that’s so deeply and brilliantly embedded in the entirety of the character’s arc because it isn’t just a flaw. It’s a truth. And Buffy grapples with her sense of superiority in such a gratuitous way which makes it seem like it’s not even a flaw at all. Even though it is. It’s just not made a big deal of the way it would be with other characters. Again, partially because it’s true. She is a superior being. And she can’t run away from that truth. She can’t bury it beneath her. And in ‘Conversations With Dead People’ it’s brought up by her mortal enemy having just come out of the ground, … so the audience is meant to think “well, hey, of course a vampire would say this. He hates her. It’s in his nature to think this way about her.”But when she harkens back to the same sentiment after a deep dive analysis into her own thoughts and emotions … the audience sit with it with her. When she finally admits to herself this, she and the audience come to a truth so controversial but also unescapable throughout the whole show.The Slayer is a deity. And that’s why The Woman can’t quite connect. That’s why no one else besides Faith can truly understand.And Faith had already accepted her status long ago. It’s a hard truth. But it is the truth. And for me, that’s why ‘Empty Places’… and to some degree even ‘Dead Man’s Party’ is just so wrong. We know that her friends and even her family don’t understand. But we don’t need to see Buffy being ganged up on and abandoned for something she has no control over … already feels guilty about … and is punishing herself for almost every chance she gets anyway. And people have tried to excuse these episodes by saying: “It wasn’t about her being ‘The Slayer’ why she was treated the way she was with her friends/family.”But it’s not an argument that flies with me because they’re wrong. Because actually,… it’s ALWAYS about her being ‘The Slayer’.It’s just about being ‘The Slayer’ and ‘The Woman’ at the same time and how the bloody hell does any “normal human teenage girl” deal with that? I say that Buffy’s behaviour is justified because it’s the only god damn way to DEAL with something that complicated. What is she supposed to do otherwise? NOT struggle? NOT go AWOL? NOT go catatonic? NOT be human? NOT be a deity? Only Faith truly gets it. The dichotomy between. The only difference is Faith abuses it as a power and a privilege. And Buffy doesn’t. For Buffy it’s a burden. Because Buffy is a good person. Humble. And the whole show for her is about her finding the balance between her humanity and her deity. And if you ask me,… she does a damn good job of it. Because she tries in the first place. She doesn’t do what Faith does and throws caution to the wind - even though it would be so much easier on her to do so. She actually DEALS in the only way she knows how: Shutting down. Restarting. Relearning.And in that sense - it is only a flaw because she lets it be a flaw.No offence to my girl, Faith. She’s only being true to her nature. -- source link