I've read that someone pointed out the subtext to Joss and he decided to tone it down, or that Sarah and Eliza really played up the attraction esp re: Bad Girls.
As I understand it, Joss originally intended for there to be no sexual element to the relationship: more of a sibling-rivalry kind of thing. But then people started coming up to him and talking about the sexual subtext, and at first he was all, "What? There's no subtext, you're imagining things". But then he sat down and watched the episodes again, and light dawned and he was, "Oh. That subtext. Oops."
Then, to his everlasting credit, he decided to leave it in and even play up to it, rather than ordering the actors and directors to take it out. In the commentary to 'Bad Girls' Doug Petrie jokes that the actors kept putting in lesbian subtext and as director he "forgot to tell them to stop" or words to that effect.
Personally, I've always seen Buffy/Faith as a trial run for Willow/Tara the following year. It's hard to remember now how controversial and daring that was back in the day; I do wonder if they looked at the reaction of the fans and (more importantly) their own network executives to Buffy/Faith hints, saw that the sky didn't fall, and decided it was safe to do a lesbian relationship storyline 'properly' and openly instead of only through subtext.
(Many years later Eliza Dushku is still making jokes about the special 'lost episode' of BtVS where Faith and Buffy hooked up.)
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In your icon #8, it's the end of the fight scene in 'Revelations'. Buffy and Faith have just been trying to beat each other up on false pretences, when they suddenly realise Gwendolen Post (Mrs) is the real enemy.
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My own interpretation of the Faith~Buffy relationship is something like this:
Faith is roughly a 3 on the Kinsey scale, but it's not something she thinks about much: self-analysis isn't really her thing. But in S3 she started to fall in love with Buffy: full-on, romantic love. That terrified her, even though she didn't really understand it. Love, to her, was all based on manipulation and deceit, so what she was feeling couldn't be real. She tried to keep Buffy at arm's length while simultaneously longing for her to get closer. The resulting mixed signals left Buffy horribly confused.
Buffy, meanwhile, I'd peg as a Kinsey 1; not entirely immune to same-sex attraction but only in a minor way. In S3 she was still pretty clueless about sexuality issues, though, and I don't think the nature of Faith's feelings for her ever crossed her mind. Perhaps she sensed unconsciously that there was something unusually intense about the nature of Faith's feelings for her: and this simultaneously attracted and scared off Buffy without her realising why.
(If Faith had appeared in a later season instead, after Willow came out to Buffy and forced her to re-evaluate her thoughts on sexuality, I can imagine things going differently. But in S3 Buffy really hadn't ever had to think about such matters.)
Then came the events of 'Bad Girls' and 'Consequences', and poor messed-up Faith was confronted by the sight of Buffy pulling away from her in shock and fear, using words like 'dirty' and 'sick', and talking about turning her in to the police. I think her turning to the Mayor instead of Buffy then was to a large extent due to a feeling of personal betrayal - "love to anger turned" - though obviously compounded by the actions of the other Scoobies and Wesley.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-11-22 12:16 pm (UTC)As I understand it, Joss originally intended for there to be no sexual element to the relationship: more of a sibling-rivalry kind of thing. But then people started coming up to him and talking about the sexual subtext, and at first he was all, "What? There's no subtext, you're imagining things". But then he sat down and watched the episodes again, and light dawned and he was, "Oh. That subtext. Oops."
Then, to his everlasting credit, he decided to leave it in and even play up to it, rather than ordering the actors and directors to take it out. In the commentary to 'Bad Girls' Doug Petrie jokes that the actors kept putting in lesbian subtext and as director he "forgot to tell them to stop" or words to that effect.
Personally, I've always seen Buffy/Faith as a trial run for Willow/Tara the following year. It's hard to remember now how controversial and daring that was back in the day; I do wonder if they looked at the reaction of the fans and (more importantly) their own network executives to Buffy/Faith hints, saw that the sky didn't fall, and decided it was safe to do a lesbian relationship storyline 'properly' and openly instead of only through subtext.
(Many years later Eliza Dushku is still making jokes about the special 'lost episode' of BtVS where Faith and Buffy hooked up.)
********
In your icon #8, it's the end of the fight scene in 'Revelations'. Buffy and Faith have just been trying to beat each other up on false pretences, when they suddenly realise Gwendolen Post (Mrs) is the real enemy.
*******
My own interpretation of the Faith~Buffy relationship is something like this:
Faith is roughly a 3 on the Kinsey scale, but it's not something she thinks about much: self-analysis isn't really her thing. But in S3 she started to fall in love with Buffy: full-on, romantic love. That terrified her, even though she didn't really understand it. Love, to her, was all based on manipulation and deceit, so what she was feeling couldn't be real. She tried to keep Buffy at arm's length while simultaneously longing for her to get closer. The resulting mixed signals left Buffy horribly confused.
Buffy, meanwhile, I'd peg as a Kinsey 1; not entirely immune to same-sex attraction but only in a minor way. In S3 she was still pretty clueless about sexuality issues, though, and I don't think the nature of Faith's feelings for her ever crossed her mind. Perhaps she sensed unconsciously that there was something unusually intense about the nature of Faith's feelings for her: and this simultaneously attracted and scared off Buffy without her realising why.
(If Faith had appeared in a later season instead, after Willow came out to Buffy and forced her to re-evaluate her thoughts on sexuality, I can imagine things going differently. But in S3 Buffy really hadn't ever had to think about such matters.)
Then came the events of 'Bad Girls' and 'Consequences', and poor messed-up Faith was confronted by the sight of Buffy pulling away from her in shock and fear, using words like 'dirty' and 'sick', and talking about turning her in to the police. I think her turning to the Mayor instead of Buffy then was to a large extent due to a feeling of personal betrayal - "love to anger turned" - though obviously compounded by the actions of the other Scoobies and Wesley.