So much yes. I watched the scene I chose above - Buffy on the bed in that tiny LA apartment, with an open soup can in her hands, unable to summon the will or energy to feed herself - self-care is one of the first things to go in depression - and it hit me very hard because I know that feeling intimately. It's all the more amazing in that according to Joss, Sarah had never experienced depression and had a hard time understanding the utter lack of focus that accompanies it; and yet hers is one of the best portrayals of the illness I've ever seen. (And ironically, it's a subject she returned to in Veronika Decides to Die, and The Grunge 2.)
I read a fan comment on the ATV Club that SMG "Doesn't do glum well." Huh? Honestly, she had me fooled, and I know from "glum." I was also watching Beauty and the Beasts (s.04), the first time we see her seeking a therapist's or counselor's help because Angel has returned; that one scene, in which she is panicked, distraught and terrified deserves it's own meta analysis.
and she has this great tension to give up. Giving up for Buffy means death If anything I'd argue that she tries not to give up and keeps fighting until it's too hard to bear anymore; being the Slayer - and having Slayer strength - doesn't translate into emotional strength, but it's a load she has to bear on her own. And it's that tendency to keep going beyond her own breaking point that causes so much trouble, esp in S7.
A lot is made of the "Slayer's death wish" but I don't entirely buy it. Being out of a difficult and painful situation, wanting relief, wanting to simply rest, is not the same as wanting to die. She may be "suicidal" in The Gift (although the only other option is to sacrifice her own sister, and that is NOT in Buffy's nature; and anyway I think there's more too it), and in OMWF, but for the most part I think the "death wish" is overstated. Struggling with depression myself I can tell you that "life" is the strongest force there is; our body and mind struggle to stay alive and choose it over death. If this were not the case, then suicides would be legion.
And of course she has no recourse to therapy, which would have been a boon to her.
I often think about her last goodbye with Angel, in S3. She just stands there, she doesn't fight.
Interesting, I hadn't thought about it in that light.
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I read a fan comment on the ATV Club that SMG "Doesn't do glum well." Huh? Honestly, she had me fooled, and I know from "glum." I was also watching Beauty and the Beasts (s.04), the first time we see her seeking a therapist's or counselor's help because Angel has returned; that one scene, in which she is panicked, distraught and terrified deserves it's own meta analysis.
and she has this great tension to give up. Giving up for Buffy means death
If anything I'd argue that she tries not to give up and keeps fighting until it's too hard to bear anymore; being the Slayer - and having Slayer strength - doesn't translate into emotional strength, but it's a load she has to bear on her own. And it's that tendency to keep going beyond her own breaking point that causes so much trouble, esp in S7.
A lot is made of the "Slayer's death wish" but I don't entirely buy it. Being out of a difficult and painful situation, wanting relief, wanting to simply rest, is not the same as wanting to die. She may be "suicidal" in The Gift (although the only other option is to sacrifice her own sister, and that is NOT in Buffy's nature; and anyway I think there's more too it), and in OMWF, but for the most part I think the "death wish" is overstated. Struggling with depression myself I can tell you that "life" is the strongest force there is; our body and mind struggle to stay alive and choose it over death. If this were not the case, then suicides would be legion.
And of course she has no recourse to therapy, which would have been a boon to her.
I often think about her last goodbye with Angel, in S3. She just stands there, she doesn't fight.
Interesting, I hadn't thought about it in that light.