S5: Buffy is the Slayer (Part 1)
Mar. 15th, 2010 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupThinky thoughts on Buffy's Slayer identity in S5 have been muddling around in my head a few days, and a comment by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
penny_lane_42 lured them out. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say on this subject, but here's the first part.
"Death is your gift" is one of rich/irritating phrases which may mean any or all of a number of complementary interpretations. I tend to assume (and maybe this is a completely idiosyncratic opinion) that, whichever interpretation one chooses, the Primitive is speaking of Slayers in general as well as Buffy in particular.
So, here are the possibilities as I see them:
1. "Your death is your gift to the world." I think this may be more general applicable than just the situation with Dawn and Glory; that a Slayer's death is always, symbolically, her final sacrifice for the sake of humanity.
2. "Your death is your gift to you." This plays off Spike's death wish speech, Buffy's increasing mental/emotional fatigue, and her ongoing struggle near season's end with the idea of just giving up and letting the world go hang. Again, both general (Slayer death wish) and specific (Buffy's fatigue).
3. "The deaths you cause are your gift to the world." This interpretation of the Primitive's intent seems a reasonable one considering the dark side of Slayer origins as revealed in S7, the attitude of the Council, and the fact that it's not certain that we're supposed to consider the Primitive as being On Our Side, wherever that is.
4. "Killing evil [or maybe just killing] is your vocation, that which you are best suited to do." I'd say that killing as Slayers' vocation is pretty well supported. Yes, there are other aspects to saving the world, but Buffy herself says in Buffy vs. Dracula that she's been out every night, not patrolling but hunting.
I think that a lot of the thematic complexity of the season has to do with the tension between these different interpretations of Buffy's role as Slayer. The "Slayer as killer" interpretation gets most of its support at the beginning of the season, with the hunting reference and Dracula's description (and also Riley's in Restless) as a killer, while death as Buffy's gift to the world seems largely to be borne out in The Gift.
And of course, if Buffy were tryingto use the Primitive's word for guidance, she could also have justified a very different action in The Gift. Buffy, were she not our Buffy, could have killed Dawn to save the world, making Dawn's death Buffy's gift to the world.
penny_lane_42 lured them out. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say on this subject, but here's the first part."Death is your gift" is one of rich/irritating phrases which may mean any or all of a number of complementary interpretations. I tend to assume (and maybe this is a completely idiosyncratic opinion) that, whichever interpretation one chooses, the Primitive is speaking of Slayers in general as well as Buffy in particular.
So, here are the possibilities as I see them:
1. "Your death is your gift to the world." I think this may be more general applicable than just the situation with Dawn and Glory; that a Slayer's death is always, symbolically, her final sacrifice for the sake of humanity.
2. "Your death is your gift to you." This plays off Spike's death wish speech, Buffy's increasing mental/emotional fatigue, and her ongoing struggle near season's end with the idea of just giving up and letting the world go hang. Again, both general (Slayer death wish) and specific (Buffy's fatigue).
3. "The deaths you cause are your gift to the world." This interpretation of the Primitive's intent seems a reasonable one considering the dark side of Slayer origins as revealed in S7, the attitude of the Council, and the fact that it's not certain that we're supposed to consider the Primitive as being On Our Side, wherever that is.
4. "Killing evil [or maybe just killing] is your vocation, that which you are best suited to do." I'd say that killing as Slayers' vocation is pretty well supported. Yes, there are other aspects to saving the world, but Buffy herself says in Buffy vs. Dracula that she's been out every night, not patrolling but hunting.
I think that a lot of the thematic complexity of the season has to do with the tension between these different interpretations of Buffy's role as Slayer. The "Slayer as killer" interpretation gets most of its support at the beginning of the season, with the hunting reference and Dracula's description (and also Riley's in Restless) as a killer, while death as Buffy's gift to the world seems largely to be borne out in The Gift.
And of course, if Buffy were tryingto use the Primitive's word for guidance, she could also have justified a very different action in The Gift. Buffy, were she not our Buffy, could have killed Dawn to save the world, making Dawn's death Buffy's gift to the world.
