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red_satin_doll) wrote2013-03-15 08:35 pm
red_satin_doll) wrote2013-03-15 08:35 pm
Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 x 11: "Ted"
Originally posted at the Jossverse Big Damn Love Fest: http://big-damn-fest.dreamwidth.org/3818.html
RUNNER-UP: Best Meta (Not Fade Away) category of the Wicked Awards Round 10
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angelus2hot
***
Warning and Disclaimer: I have thoughts - and a lot of feelings - about "Ted". This is quite serious, and more than a little personal; some very triggery subjects will be discussed. I’m not kidding. If this isn't your thing, by all means feel free to hit the back button right now, and no hard feelings. If you chose to continue otherwise, considered yourself welcome as well as forewarned. But please leave your weapons at the threshhold before you come in. Then wipe your feet on the mat, and help yourself to cookies. (Or hot cocoa with extra marshmallows.) Also, I apologize for the formatting but LJ is being very disobedient tonight.
And then there's the simple truth that when you engage in violence, accidents happen. We aren't robots. We can't turn off and turn on with the flip of a switch--and if we could, then we'd be okay with murdering people to gain our own ends. That fact that Buffy's violence is motivated by love is essential; it is both dark and light--she dances on the razor edge and she only has her instincts to guide her. -
angeariahttp://2maggie2.livejournal.com/33960.html
***
In 1958 Lana Turner’s 14 year-old daughter Cheryl Crane stabs her mother’s boyfriend to death, allegedly in an effort to protect her mother. (The man, Johnny Stompanato, had gang connections and a history of violence behind him.) The court rules it justifiable homicide.
***
Thirty years later another teenage girl, oldest of four siblings, reads about Cheryl Crane, admires Crane’s courage, and wonders if she would be able to do the same, if the need arose. Her (second) stepfather is a large and powerful man; her mom is barely 5’3”. Would a baseball bat be sufficient? A kitchen knife? She decides on a rusty WW1-era bayonet and hides it by her bed. Her mom finds it and removes it without a word.
***
In the end, it’s unnecessary anyway; her mom divorces her husband and her daughter can breathe again, a little, and home becomes a safe place to be for the first time in years. It’s not that the girl wanted to hurt her stepfather. She knows that would be a horrific act; she also knows that there are people out there, other girls, for whom such things are unimaginable. But she’s been surrounded by violence her entire life, and so it’s not off the table. What is unimaginable in all her dark reveries, risking death for the sake of her family, is the notion of defending herself from her stepfather. Not once does that occur to her.
***
In 2012 the same girl, now a woman, finally watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. She enjoys the cleverness and subversion of the “high school is hell” metaphors, the witty dialogue, the genre tropes and subversions. She is entertained and amused, even moved at times, but she doesn’t really identify with the pretty, perky ex-cheerleader at the center of the story. It doesn’t really touch her own experiences, and isn’t remotely scary, even when Buffy goes down to meet her death at the hands of the Master for the first time. (There are a total of seven seasons, after all; ergo, nothing to worry about.)
***
And then the woman watches “Ted” and for a few moments, she is terrified - for Buffy, and for the girl who hid a bayonet by her bed all those years ago. Memories she’s (thought she’s made) made peace with and packed away tumble out unbidden, like an overstuffed dresser drawer. She knows that her experience is not identical to Buffy’s, after all, and there’s a relief in that; the girl she once was couldn’t fight back, couldn’t protect her herself much less her family, and never even dared to protest or sass back; Buffy can, and does. She has resources that girl of long ago, and most abused children, can never dream of - confidence, physical strength, strength of character and will, resourcefulness, as well as devoted friends who come to her aid.
***
But Buffy Summers is just a girl, after all, a 16 year old girl operating on instinct. She’s been given a “license to kill” (demons) and almost zero guidance in how to use it. The Watchers’ Council cares nothing for her welfare, or for the countless girls who have preceded her; what matters is that the Slayer does her job properly and follows the arcane rules imposed upon her, traditions handed down through the centuries.
***
And then the woman watches “Ted” and for a few moments, she is terrified - for Buffy, and for the girl who hid a bayonet by her bed all those years ago. Memories she’s (thought she’s made) made peace with and packed away tumble out unbidden, like an overstuffed dresser drawer. She knows that her experience is not identical to Buffy’s, after all, and there’s a relief in that; the girl she once was couldn’t fight back, couldn’t protect her herself much less her family, and never even dared to protest or sass back; Buffy can, and does. She has resources that girl of long ago, and most abused children, can never dream of - confidence, physical strength, strength of character and will, resourcefulness, as well as devoted friends who come to her aid.
***
But Buffy Summers is just a girl, after all, a 16 year old girl operating on instinct. She’s been given a “license to kill” (demons) and almost zero guidance in how to use it. The Watchers’ Council cares nothing for her welfare, or for the countless girls who have preceded her; what matters is that the Slayer does her job properly and follows the arcane rules imposed upon her, traditions handed down through the centuries.
Ted Buchanan, as it turns out, would make an ideal Watcher by the Council’s standards, barring his use of physical violence, and even that’s not a sure thing. After all, the original Shadowmen chained a girl and forced the power of the demon upon her; the Watchers' Council may be more “civilized” on the surface, but they uphold a terrible tradition. The Slayer is used, discarded and replaced when she rebels or no longer suits the councils needs. Surely more personal abuse and violations of Slayers by individual Watchers is not beyond the pale.
***
Likewise Ted demands obedience from a string of women, discarding and destroying them when they disobey him or are no longer useful. How many Slayers throughout time have come before Buffy (later Kendra and Faith)? How many other people has Ted hurt or killed, women who wouldn’t follow the program, in addition to the four wives in his closet? The Watcher’s Council and Ted both operate within closed systems; they may allow minor changes and adjustments so long as the original paradigm is preserved.
***
Likewise Ted demands obedience from a string of women, discarding and destroying them when they disobey him or are no longer useful. How many Slayers throughout time have come before Buffy (later Kendra and Faith)? How many other people has Ted hurt or killed, women who wouldn’t follow the program, in addition to the four wives in his closet? The Watcher’s Council and Ted both operate within closed systems; they may allow minor changes and adjustments so long as the original paradigm is preserved.
***
Of course Buffy defeats Ted, motivated not just by her Slayer instincts but the instincts of a daughter and friend to protect the people she loves. She’s the Hero, after all. And yet she suffers for her actions; social ostracization, guilt, and shame. Heros may not end up in court charged with justifiable homicide but there are still consequences to bear. (There are always consequences.)
***
Or at least there are if the Hero is a teenage girl. Violence from men is so common as to be unremarkable; violent acts committed by women are still considered shocking. It’s no accident that at the end of the episode Buffy and Joyce agree to a rewatch of Thelma and Louise, a movie that disturbed and polarize audiences because two female protagonists commit violent acts against male characters onscreen; the same violence by male protagonists is a commonplace in movies, and a guarantee of box office sales.
***
So Buffy succeeds but at a cost. Her mother is safe but heartbroken and terribly lonely, unable to even look her daughter in the eye. Whatever her personal animosity towards Ted, much of it justifiable in light of his behavior, the last thing on earth Buffy ever wanted to do was to hurt her mother. The bond between them, one that suffered fissures long before “Ted Buchanan” came into their lives, is further damaged. And yet they love one another, deeply, no one questions that, and there’s the rub. The anger and love are warped and woven into one another so tightly that what poisons their bond also strengthens it.
***
And so it is with her best friends, with her mentor, with everyone who comes within her circle. Violence begets violence. It stains and spoils everything it touches; it cannot be put back into a tidy little box, locked up and tossed away. We can atone for it but we cannot undo it.
***
But this a fictional story and in fiction, unlike real life, there must be some catharsis for the viewer, a chance to release the anxieties the story has provoked, to relax and breathe again. And so it is for the characters themselves, or at least it seems at the moment. The episode ends happily, one might say conventionally, enough. More dramatically than the story of girl with the bayonet, perhaps (real life has no resolutions, remember); but Buffy and her mother come to an uneasy, unspoken peace on the back porch, their home (women’s space) reclaimed, and they can breathe again, for a time. Rupert Giles and Jenny Calender share a passionate kiss for the first time, Xander and Cordelia giggle while Buffy averts her eyes. It’s an ending worthy of Shakespearean comedy: All’s well that ends well.
***
Or at least there are if the Hero is a teenage girl. Violence from men is so common as to be unremarkable; violent acts committed by women are still considered shocking. It’s no accident that at the end of the episode Buffy and Joyce agree to a rewatch of Thelma and Louise, a movie that disturbed and polarize audiences because two female protagonists commit violent acts against male characters onscreen; the same violence by male protagonists is a commonplace in movies, and a guarantee of box office sales.
***
So Buffy succeeds but at a cost. Her mother is safe but heartbroken and terribly lonely, unable to even look her daughter in the eye. Whatever her personal animosity towards Ted, much of it justifiable in light of his behavior, the last thing on earth Buffy ever wanted to do was to hurt her mother. The bond between them, one that suffered fissures long before “Ted Buchanan” came into their lives, is further damaged. And yet they love one another, deeply, no one questions that, and there’s the rub. The anger and love are warped and woven into one another so tightly that what poisons their bond also strengthens it.
***
And so it is with her best friends, with her mentor, with everyone who comes within her circle. Violence begets violence. It stains and spoils everything it touches; it cannot be put back into a tidy little box, locked up and tossed away. We can atone for it but we cannot undo it.
***
But this a fictional story and in fiction, unlike real life, there must be some catharsis for the viewer, a chance to release the anxieties the story has provoked, to relax and breathe again. And so it is for the characters themselves, or at least it seems at the moment. The episode ends happily, one might say conventionally, enough. More dramatically than the story of girl with the bayonet, perhaps (real life has no resolutions, remember); but Buffy and her mother come to an uneasy, unspoken peace on the back porch, their home (women’s space) reclaimed, and they can breathe again, for a time. Rupert Giles and Jenny Calender share a passionate kiss for the first time, Xander and Cordelia giggle while Buffy averts her eyes. It’s an ending worthy of Shakespearean comedy: All’s well that ends well.
Except, of course, that we’ve seen the entire series, and we know too much. The moments that made us smile and cheer when we first watched are painful now. (Not as painful as the memory of that bayonet and all it represented, but certainly poignant.) The characters onscreen have the luxury of perpetual innocence; they can’t know yet that Buffy will hesitate to kill her lover and it will cost Jenny her life, and Giles his only chance at love; that Buffy will eventually run a sword through her lover’s heart. The truth of Buffy’s calling will be forced upon Joyce at the worst possible hour and their relationship will be very nearly destroyed.
***
Much has been made of Buffy’s “daddy issues”, at the cost of the complex mother/daughter relationship, and so scholars and fandom inadvertently repeat the sins of Ted Buchanan, and of the Watchers Council. We forget, dismiss or overlook the fact that it always comes back to this: the love between a girl trying to grow up in an uncertain and frightening world, and a lonely mother so deeply in denial she cannot see what’s in plain sight before her eyes.
***
And Ted’s fingerprints (do robots have fingerprints?) can be found in the final hours of Buffy’s story when Giles and “General Buffy” and their friends represent the last vestigal traces of the WC, haunted by ghosts and locked into a closed and destructive paradigm. Violence begets violence.
***
In 2012, Buffy became my Hero - by which I mean my fictional hero, my avatar, as opposed to real life heros such as my mother. (Make no mistake - in her capacity to love and endure, I consider my mother heroic.) My brothers grew up with Spiderman and Batman and Hans Solo; with countless tales of soldiers and kings throughout the ages. I had to wait until I was in my 40’s to find her.
***
Was it worth it the wait? Yes, it most certainly was. Yet I can’t help feel a little wistful that Buffy Summers wasn’t around in the 1970's or 1980’s; I certainly would have loved her then as I do now, if perhaps for different reasons. I can hope that in the years since that at least one other girl or boy, etched with anger and violence, haunted by dreams of murder that are so common as to be unremarkable, has felt just a little less frightened and alone because of her.
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Much has been made of Buffy’s “daddy issues”, at the cost of the complex mother/daughter relationship, and so scholars and fandom inadvertently repeat the sins of Ted, and of the Watchers Council.
This. So, so this! The WC personified by Giles tries to break up the matriarchal home of the Summers women, in fact, he tries to replace Buffy's mother with himself. And while he loves Buffy, he does not love her unconditionally - he tries to shape her in ways which benefit his agenda, the ideology he stands for; as opposed to Joyce Summers, who - while sometimes confused - loves her daughter wholly. There is some aspect of proprietary love - or 'love' as a special expression of ownership - vs a mother's love here. And, yes - fandom, critics, whathaveyou are all too dismissive of the female relationship (and not only this mother-daughter relationship!) and put overly focused importance on Buffy's relationships with (various) men.
Thanks for writing this! And all the very best to you! :-)
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When I first watched the show I was frustrated by how little we see of Joyce, to the point that she literally disappears (from the screen) in S4, because I know how complicated that mother/daughter bond is - I lived it, and still do, as someone with a divorced mom, from a "broken home" as the saying goes. You depend on one another, and the parent/child roles transfer back and forth between you. I have more sympathy for my mother's experience now as an adult in a long-term relationship. And that seems strange given that motherhood is as much subtext as fatherhood on the show - Buffy becomes Dawn's mother, and she and Faith become the "mothers" of the new line of Slayers (the Slayers have two mommies!), they "sire" the new army. And sisterhood and motherhood are not really separate but part of a continuum IMO - which I think the transfer from Joyce-Buffy to Buffy-Dawn acknowledges.
Watching the show increased my sympathy for my mom and her experience, but mostly via S6; Buffy's isolation and weariness, financial struggles, her untreated depression etc reminded me both of my mother and myself. (Of course, right?) But I was hungry for some of those issues to be acknowledged or touched upon in while Joyce was still alive; the story is from Buffy's POV so maybe that's realistic, but there's no sense of the financial difficulties for instance; we never see Joyce working or paying bills; she might as well be wearing June Cleaver's pearls. I also wanted her to "see" who Buffy was, to become part of the story rather than on the periphery of it, the butt of the joke. Joyce apparently has no trauma whatsover from Helpless that we can see, and the fallout from "Gingerbread" is never dealt with or acknowledged between the two of them, the way it is here in "Ted". And I think that's sloppy, or careless/thoughtless writing & plotting.
You can imagine how disappointed I was when Joyce disappeared from S4 and how happy to see her come back in a big way in S5; add Dawn to the mix and the importance of female (and familial) bonds was very important to S5 and I loved that...and then they killed off Joyce.
It's all the more irksome that as there were "father figures" aplenty on the show but very few mother figures. There was no one to replace Jenny or Joyce when they were killed, no other mature women figures, except Maggie Walsh, who I was hoping would become a mentor to Buffy but turns out to be a villain. And the one prominent female Watcher on the show also turns out to be a villain. For all the show's girl power/feminism etc, mature women still do not exist, or they are erased quickly.
To the show's credit, Joyce lingers as a "ghost" in S6-7 (in NA, in her photograph, as the First) so the bond is still acknowledged, but again there are no other mature women whom Buffy relates to. I think that's a "blind spot" in Joss's thinking/worldview because, again, it's been normalized.
Because I have too many thoughts for one reply...
As an agent of the WC he definitely tries to replace Joyce, which has probably been normal procedure in many cultures and throughout time (i.e. Kendra, or Nikki's Watcher adopting Robin.) Giles' ambivalence represents the fact that he paradigm no longer works in the modern world. At the very least needs to be rethought or adjusted. It's that closed system that allows minor tweaks but no major changes. But that's not to absolve Giles or Joyce of their failures either.
I think it's a bit more complicated than "proprietary love vs motherly love", which implies that women and mothers especially just intuitively know how to love and intuitively have "mastery". It's gender essentialism, which I don't believe in (see my comments to kikimay above). I'm sure you know the Victorians had a particularly strong and sentimental "cult of the Mother", and we see that acted out with William and Anne in FFL, in today still in fandom's collective memory of Joyce, as well as Buffy and Dawn's memories of her. Giles claims that Joyce taught Buffy "everything you need to know about life", a convenient rationalization! Buffy says to Dawn in "Him" that she's glad that Mom is not around to see Dawn dressed and behaving like a "slut", conveniently forgetting her own dress and behavior in S1-3, and before that in the Bargaining flashback. I think the appearance of "Saint Joyce" in CWDP is actually a parody of this idea; LMPTM criticizes both Spike and Robin's failures to see their mothers as anything but extensions of themselves.
Joyce also has expectations and desires of her daughter, just as Giles/the WC, even if it's somewhat less explicit. That's partly to do with the fact that the writers are less concerned with Buffy-Joyce as with Buffy-Giles, but also because she's more "careful" in expressing her own expectations. "I don't want to be disappointed" Joyce says in one episode (an "I" statement), as opposed to DreamHank in "Nightmares", "you're sullen and rude..." ("you" statements.) Joyce's confusion and anger once she learns the truth in Becoming is understandable; but she also fails to see the truth all along, the blood stains, etc, doesn't try very hard to understand what's going on with her daughter, which is good and bad; she's trying to be a "modern" parent, almost but not quite a "friend". Her boundaries and discipline is haphazard (she grounds Buffy for rather minor infractions, but allows her daughter to walk the obviously older "college boy" in "Angel" to the door to say goodnight.) She brings a lover into the house who turns out to be a dangerous, violent man; her need and desire are understandable but she nonetheless puts her child and herself in danger.
This somewhat haphazard pattern actually strikes me as pretty realistic of many parents, esp in dysfunctional families (I actually hate that term but it's a convenient shorthand); but I don't think Joyce is immune from the criticism the show makes of authority figures and especially parents. Power and abuse of power is a major theme of the show, and "abuse" includes neglect (Sheila Rosenberg), denial (Joyce) and abandonment (Giles). Failure to protect the innocents is just one expression of the theme. People say that Joss has a thing for "bad dads" but I prefer Cynthia Bowers' term in this context, "problematic parenting" because it encompasses both genders.
And honestly, I think the phrase "unconditional love" is problematic itself. It implies that there's a "right way to do" love, and whatever doesn't match the description is wrong, we're getting it wrong, at least in terms of interpersonal relationships (as to opposed to a more abstract "love for the world".) So I think we keep missing the love that we do have and feel, that's right in front of us, in the search for the "right kind of love". (Riley in S5, and Buffy and Spike in S6 being prime examples.)
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And, yes - fandom, critics, whathaveyou are all too dismissive of the female relationship (and not only this mother-daughter relationship!) and put overly focused importance on Buffy's relationships with (various) men.
YES, exactly. (And my apologies, dear!)
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Interesting thoughts, I'll have to ponder and answer when my brain is rested and I'm more coherent. Thanks again for "digging up" these old posts.
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I'll try to, but I can't guarantee I'll remember.
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