blackfrancine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blackfrancine) wrote2011-02-09 09:05 pm
blackfrancine) wrote2011-02-09 09:05 pm
Entry tags:
Day 9: My Favorite Villian
So, after having been shockingly on schedule with this meme for 8 days, I missed yesterday. But I have a good excuse! I. Signed up. For Seasonal Spuffy. That's right. And I spent the better part of last night attempting to write something! I think it probably sucks! But still. I have plenty of time to try and make it not suck.
Anyhoo! Have a surprisingly long stream-of-consciousness essay on my favorite villain(s)!
The Trio
Now. I get why people don’t like the Trio—they’re humans. They’re diverging too far from the show’s supernatural premise. Their attempts at villainy are lame.
And I don’t really disagree. But since I’m such a sucker for season 6 and its examination of humanity and human problems, the Trio just speaks to my soul. They’re the villains for me.
It’s been said many times that the Big Bad of season 6 is life itself—and that’s true. But it’s also depression. In fact, Buffy’s depression so dominates the mood of the season, that depression and life become conflated, bleeding into one another’s edges. And the Trio are the most brilliant symbolic incarnation of Buffy’s depression that the writers could’ve possibly come up with (and here’s where I give a huge monster shout out to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gabrielleabelle ’s meta The Link Between the Trio and Buffy's Depression and also her exquisite and oft-recc’d series Buffy Came Back Wrong). Here’s why I think the Trio are the greatest symbolic villains ever:
1) Familiarity
Depression seems like a very run-of-the-mill problem. We see commercials about it all the time, most people experience some form of it at one point or another. And like depression, the Trio is familiar.
Jonathan is an old acquaintance of the Scoobies—a perennial classmate and party-attender. But, interestingly, he started coming on the scene more frequently after Buffy’s first big depressive episode—the summer after Becoming. In fact, Jonathan’s two biggest episodes center around mental illness and ideas of self worth. Earshot is his first major appearance, an episode in which he’s planning to commit suicide—and in which Buffy is simultaneously struggling with the possibility of going insane. His second big appearance is in Superstar, in which he dupes the world into thinking he’s perfect at every activity ever just to cover up his feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy—and in which he, in the end, is left utterly alone, feeling worthless and inadequate. So Jonathan is closely tied to struggles with mental illness—both Buffy’s and his own.
Warren is a relatively new face, but we know him nonetheless. He first appeared in I Was Made to Love You—the episode that directly precedes The Body—in which the most traumatic thing (other than resurrection) to ever happen to Buffy occurs. Warren’s appearance actually marks the beginning of Buffy’s descent in season 5—it starts with her mother’s death, continues with her struggle to fuse her fractured identity, deepens when her attempts to defy Glory’s plans seem hopeless, and really plunges into darkness—and catatonia--when Glory takes Dawn away. The descent culminates with her fulfilling her death wish and jumping from the tower to save Dawn and the world.
Andrew we don’t really know. He’s a new element, but he has a link to Buffy’s past as well. Most closely tied to the hell-hound incident at the prom—Andrew is therefore associated with the episode when Angel announces that he is leaving Buffy. When her dreams of a future that wouldn’t be spent in utter solitude began to fade.
So, here we have 3 incarnations of the major traumas and most difficult periods of Buffy’s life: Jonathan=having to kill Angel; Andrew=Angel abandoning her and her dreams of normality dying; and Warren=the death of her mother, her failure to save Dawn from Glory, and jumping to her death.
Individually, these traumas were difficult for Buffy to overcome—she ran away after killing Angel, attempted to find solace and worth through sex with Parker after Angel left her, and, well, she killed herself after her spiral in season 5. And NOW these guys are united.
2) Underestimation
A lot of people don’t really believe in depression as a disease or disorder. They really think it’s just self-indulgent whining. Or just the blues. That sufferers can and should shake it off.
Well, similarly, the audience and Buffy and the Scoobies don’t have much faith in the Trio. They're deceptively goofy, lulling their adversaries into complacency. The audience dismisses their gadgetry and hackneyed demon summoning as meandering and boring. Pointless. And Buffy sees it that way too—the Scoobies fail to see any rhyme or reason to the crimes the Trio commit, and they blow them off as being bafflingly “lame.”
Depression is the same way, folks. There’s not necessarily a material cause. There’s often no physically visible symptoms. It makes no sense why you feel so bad--why Buffy feels so bad. But you do--and she does. It’s baffling. And the bleakness and sorrow seem so uncalled for, so without cause that there doesn’t seem to be a way to treat it. If there is no root problem, how do you solve it? So, you just let the depression meander its way across your consciousness, breaking into banks and freeze-raying security guards, just like the Trio.
3) Underestimation leads to bad things (aka, I couldn't think of an appropriate subhead for this section)
But, ultimately, it does an extraordinary amount of damage. Warren is the villain who comes the closest of anyone--save the Master--to killing Buffy. If Willow hadn’t have fixed Buffy with magic, things were looking pretty grim. Warren kills Tara, an action that pushes Willow into darkness and almost results in her ending the world--something not even Buffy can stop her from doing.
Because depression SEEMS like something that everyone goes through (everyone gets sad, right?), because it’s so familiar and so without cause and so purposeless, because of all the things that make it seem insignificant , it's all the more dangerous. Just like the Trio.
This brings me to the point of Katrina. Warren is a dork. A geek. Sexually inexperienced (with human women, anyway), socially awkward. Harmless, right? Not so much. Because he seems harmless—like a kicked puppy—when he lashes out, Katrina (and Buffy and Tara and Willow) are far less prepared. Underestimating the harm that can be done by either the Trio or depression is a mistake. That’d be the big lesson from season 6.
Another reason why I chose the Trio as my favorite villainous group, is that I just love these characters. They’re so HUMAN. Their evil is so human. And it’s so rooted in reality. Warren’s a misogynist as a mask to cover his deep-seated fear of rejection. He was bullied and hurt and cast aside. He created his own “weird love” in the form of April—and that weird love tried to destroy—and did destroy—the only real love he’d ever experienced.
Jonathan’s an outcast looking to belong and to show the world that he’s worth something. We saw Jonathan get bullied by Cordelia and Harmony. Hell, we saw him get bullied by Willow. We saw him weeping in the bell tower thingy, ready to end his own life. We saw Buffy coolly reject him at the end of Superstar. We know how alone Jonathan must be. And we know that at his core, he’s still good.
And Andrew? Well, Andrew’s not evil—but he picks up its flavor like a mushroom. In season 7 he starts on a path of redemption that is particularly interesting in a TV show that is just chocked full of redemption arcs. It’s interesting because he’s a goofball. He’s not the type of person who’s supposed to get a redemption arc. But he does. He’s done harm, and he gets an opportunity to atone for it.
But also—setting aside all the exciting symbolism and depth of character and motivation and stuff—come on. How fun are the Trio? “Jonathan, get your magic bone”? “Timothy Dalton should win an Oscar and beat Sean Connery over the head with it”? “Spike’s so cool. I mean, and the girl’s hot too.”
Silly, evil bastards.
Anyhoo! Have a surprisingly long stream-of-consciousness essay on my favorite villain(s)!
The Trio
Now. I get why people don’t like the Trio—they’re humans. They’re diverging too far from the show’s supernatural premise. Their attempts at villainy are lame.
And I don’t really disagree. But since I’m such a sucker for season 6 and its examination of humanity and human problems, the Trio just speaks to my soul. They’re the villains for me.
It’s been said many times that the Big Bad of season 6 is life itself—and that’s true. But it’s also depression. In fact, Buffy’s depression so dominates the mood of the season, that depression and life become conflated, bleeding into one another’s edges. And the Trio are the most brilliant symbolic incarnation of Buffy’s depression that the writers could’ve possibly come up with (and here’s where I give a huge monster shout out to
gabrielleabelle ’s meta The Link Between the Trio and Buffy's Depression and also her exquisite and oft-recc’d series Buffy Came Back Wrong). Here’s why I think the Trio are the greatest symbolic villains ever:1) Familiarity
Depression seems like a very run-of-the-mill problem. We see commercials about it all the time, most people experience some form of it at one point or another. And like depression, the Trio is familiar.
Jonathan is an old acquaintance of the Scoobies—a perennial classmate and party-attender. But, interestingly, he started coming on the scene more frequently after Buffy’s first big depressive episode—the summer after Becoming. In fact, Jonathan’s two biggest episodes center around mental illness and ideas of self worth. Earshot is his first major appearance, an episode in which he’s planning to commit suicide—and in which Buffy is simultaneously struggling with the possibility of going insane. His second big appearance is in Superstar, in which he dupes the world into thinking he’s perfect at every activity ever just to cover up his feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy—and in which he, in the end, is left utterly alone, feeling worthless and inadequate. So Jonathan is closely tied to struggles with mental illness—both Buffy’s and his own.
Warren is a relatively new face, but we know him nonetheless. He first appeared in I Was Made to Love You—the episode that directly precedes The Body—in which the most traumatic thing (other than resurrection) to ever happen to Buffy occurs. Warren’s appearance actually marks the beginning of Buffy’s descent in season 5—it starts with her mother’s death, continues with her struggle to fuse her fractured identity, deepens when her attempts to defy Glory’s plans seem hopeless, and really plunges into darkness—and catatonia--when Glory takes Dawn away. The descent culminates with her fulfilling her death wish and jumping from the tower to save Dawn and the world.
Andrew we don’t really know. He’s a new element, but he has a link to Buffy’s past as well. Most closely tied to the hell-hound incident at the prom—Andrew is therefore associated with the episode when Angel announces that he is leaving Buffy. When her dreams of a future that wouldn’t be spent in utter solitude began to fade.
So, here we have 3 incarnations of the major traumas and most difficult periods of Buffy’s life: Jonathan=having to kill Angel; Andrew=Angel abandoning her and her dreams of normality dying; and Warren=the death of her mother, her failure to save Dawn from Glory, and jumping to her death.
Individually, these traumas were difficult for Buffy to overcome—she ran away after killing Angel, attempted to find solace and worth through sex with Parker after Angel left her, and, well, she killed herself after her spiral in season 5. And NOW these guys are united.
2) Underestimation
A lot of people don’t really believe in depression as a disease or disorder. They really think it’s just self-indulgent whining. Or just the blues. That sufferers can and should shake it off.
Well, similarly, the audience and Buffy and the Scoobies don’t have much faith in the Trio. They're deceptively goofy, lulling their adversaries into complacency. The audience dismisses their gadgetry and hackneyed demon summoning as meandering and boring. Pointless. And Buffy sees it that way too—the Scoobies fail to see any rhyme or reason to the crimes the Trio commit, and they blow them off as being bafflingly “lame.”
Depression is the same way, folks. There’s not necessarily a material cause. There’s often no physically visible symptoms. It makes no sense why you feel so bad--why Buffy feels so bad. But you do--and she does. It’s baffling. And the bleakness and sorrow seem so uncalled for, so without cause that there doesn’t seem to be a way to treat it. If there is no root problem, how do you solve it? So, you just let the depression meander its way across your consciousness, breaking into banks and freeze-raying security guards, just like the Trio.
3) Underestimation leads to bad things (aka, I couldn't think of an appropriate subhead for this section)
But, ultimately, it does an extraordinary amount of damage. Warren is the villain who comes the closest of anyone--save the Master--to killing Buffy. If Willow hadn’t have fixed Buffy with magic, things were looking pretty grim. Warren kills Tara, an action that pushes Willow into darkness and almost results in her ending the world--something not even Buffy can stop her from doing.
Because depression SEEMS like something that everyone goes through (everyone gets sad, right?), because it’s so familiar and so without cause and so purposeless, because of all the things that make it seem insignificant , it's all the more dangerous. Just like the Trio.
This brings me to the point of Katrina. Warren is a dork. A geek. Sexually inexperienced (with human women, anyway), socially awkward. Harmless, right? Not so much. Because he seems harmless—like a kicked puppy—when he lashes out, Katrina (and Buffy and Tara and Willow) are far less prepared. Underestimating the harm that can be done by either the Trio or depression is a mistake. That’d be the big lesson from season 6.
Another reason why I chose the Trio as my favorite villainous group, is that I just love these characters. They’re so HUMAN. Their evil is so human. And it’s so rooted in reality. Warren’s a misogynist as a mask to cover his deep-seated fear of rejection. He was bullied and hurt and cast aside. He created his own “weird love” in the form of April—and that weird love tried to destroy—and did destroy—the only real love he’d ever experienced.
Jonathan’s an outcast looking to belong and to show the world that he’s worth something. We saw Jonathan get bullied by Cordelia and Harmony. Hell, we saw him get bullied by Willow. We saw him weeping in the bell tower thingy, ready to end his own life. We saw Buffy coolly reject him at the end of Superstar. We know how alone Jonathan must be. And we know that at his core, he’s still good.
And Andrew? Well, Andrew’s not evil—but he picks up its flavor like a mushroom. In season 7 he starts on a path of redemption that is particularly interesting in a TV show that is just chocked full of redemption arcs. It’s interesting because he’s a goofball. He’s not the type of person who’s supposed to get a redemption arc. But he does. He’s done harm, and he gets an opportunity to atone for it.
But also—setting aside all the exciting symbolism and depth of character and motivation and stuff—come on. How fun are the Trio? “Jonathan, get your magic bone”? “Timothy Dalton should win an Oscar and beat Sean Connery over the head with it”? “Spike’s so cool. I mean, and the girl’s hot too.”
Silly, evil bastards.