Going Through the Motions

In our semester finale of Buffy, the musical episode entitled Once More with Feeling, I was most affected by the opening song sung by the show’s protagonist, in which she ponders the reasons for living and continuing on in her never-ending pursuit to eradicate evil. Very existential in nature, this song can cause the viewer to be quite self-reflective about their own purpose on this Earth, and contemplate the value and meaning of their own life in a manner not typically inspired by a somewhat-corny Gothic television show. I would argue that Buffy’s plight, as we hear it expressed in song, is one that every human encounters at one point or another: a questioning of whether what were are doing with our lives is really worth it or if it is having any lasting impact on humanity at all. I believe that all people experience the same sort of exasperation with life that Buffy demonstrates with this song, but I think like Buffy it is necessary for all people to take what they have and believe in it. In a sense every person is their own “chosen one”, as they have the ability to determine the course and impact of their life through their direct actions and the adoption of projects much in the way that Buffy assumes the role of “slayer”. To find something to devote our lives to is all a human can ask for in this uncertain world, and I think Buffy and Joss Whedon illustrate this point quite well.

Blurring Dream and Reality

In Once More, With Feeling, we are faced with a demon that makes people go into musical world without knowing. When people start to talk, it just transitions into singing and dancing seamlessly. When the Scooby gang got nervous with this unknown demon, Buffy comes the group down through singing out her faith in the gang. When Giles talks about his feelings about Buffy, he just started to sing it out. The transition to the musical world is very smooth; where as the audience I had no trouble from one to the other. Because the transitions are so smooth and we are traveling back and forth between two worlds, to gets blurred sometimes. But, we can figure out when we are in the musical world if we just stay a bit longer and wait for the dramatic movements or the singing, which are cues for the musical world. Similarly, in the Nutcracker, Marie is able to move back and forth between the world that Nutcracker lives and the world where her family is in. The narrator moves between the fantasy and the reality seemly. However, this time, the two worlds are a lot more blurred than in Buffy, at times it is hard to know whether we are in fantasy or reality. We are seeing evidence of fantasy in reality (mouse king’s crown). We are seeing evidence of reality in fantasy (the clockmaker).

"Hush" vs. "Once More With Feeling"

Approaching "Hush" at the end of the semester has provided me with the interesting opportunity to compare the communication problems depicted in this episode to those present in "Once More With Feeling." In "Hush" the characters struggle with at first speaking too much and then later not being able to speak at all. From the spell of the Gentlemen, they are forced to examine non-verbal communication through body language. In "Once More With Feeling" the characters have to expose their bottled up secrets to each other through song and dance. Arguably the effect of this revelation would not have been as bad if the characters had attempted to communicate their emotions little by little over time. Even though these communication issues are expressed differently they are strikingly/frustratingly similar in content. For example, Xander and Anya are unable to effectively express their emotions for one another in "Hush," and this same communication issue plagues their relationship in "Once More With Feeling." Similarly, in "Hush" we see Buffy having problems communicating with a Riley and in "Once More With Feeling" we observe Buffy having problems communicating with Spike (boy drama!). Thus, even though the the Scooby gang appears to gain an understanding of their communication troubles at the end of "Hush," they clearly do not internalize this lesson for an extended period of time because their issues reemerge throughout the seasons and particularly in "Once More With Feeling." Jenkins and Stuart support and expand upon this claim by saying, "Although 'Hush' is certainly a particularly interesting example of how the series investigates the kinds of effects that speech can have in and on the world, it is by no means unique in having this concern. Throughout the series, speech acts are under scrutiny because they are part of the fundamental rules of the Buffyverse." Perhaps then, according to this judgement, the lack of evolution in communication abilities is actually the necessary continuation of a dialogue centered around modern issues of articulation and self-expression.

Jenkins, Alice and Stuart, Susan (2003). "Extending Your Mind: Non-Standard Perlocutionary Acts in 'Hush'", The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies. Retrieved on December 15, 2011.

Singing as Narrative Power in "Once More with Feeling"

The cool thing about "Once More with Feeling" is not that it's a musical -- the cool part is actually how the characters use their voices and their unexpected desire to break out into song to their advantage. In any musical setting of a text, whether it's through Broadway-esque song and dance or through grand opera, is going to sound a little contrived simply because the act of singing is very often attached to theatricality. So we can ask ourselves: is our discomfort watching this episode due to some sort of fear that the characters are actually addressing the problems in their lives with excessive emotionality/poetry? Are their words trite or hackneyed because of the musical idiom?

I would argue that the more important feature of the musical episode is its ability to give characters a heightened narrative voice -- it's not so much what they're saying in the songs as how they're saying it. The characters are more swift and uninhibited; moreover, singing gives them an outlet by which to "own" their relationship to and their prominence in the episode (for example, when Anya says to Xander, "this is my verse!"). It's not just that the characters are more self-aware because they're singing, and it's not just that they have varying degrees of awareness of what other people are singing about -- more than that, song gives them a way to position themselves narratively within the episode in a more subtle, colorful way. I think that pretty interesting! It also lets them infuse meaning -- the jazzy demon who holds Dawn hostage uses song to add dissonance to the word "hell" and cheerful airiness to the word "heaven."

Willow handled her evil twin fine!

Xander: Hey, wait till you have an evil twin. See how you handle it.

Willow: I handled it fine.

---- "The Replacement"

Several posts ago, Abby argued that in "Doppelganger" Willow did not change in response to encountering Vamp Willow.

“Although VampWill presents her with the opportunity to see herself externally, she does not fully embrace these observations to amend her internal self-suppression. The fact that she turns into DarkWillow later in the series illustrates this lack of internalization.”

Au contraire, ma soeur! (On the contrary, my sister!) I’d argue instead that Willow did change due to her encounter with Vamp Willow, and that those changes may have in the end resulted in Willow turning into Dark Willow.

I’ve always interpreted the closing scene of “Doppelgangland” as providing a glimpse of Willow’s first realization that being assertive and possessing power can have positive effects. Willow was initially going to stay home, floss, do her homework, die a virgin and not go out with Buffy that night because she’d seen where the path of evil lead to in Vamp Willow who ruined everything she touched, but after Percy acts so obsequiously towards Willow and gives her the book report outlines, Willow instantly changes her mind and wants to go out that night at 9. Vamp Willow’s intimidation got results and Willow’s life is made easier and more enjoyable because of it. Willow couldn’t help but see the possible implications of this event.

In the next episode, Willow talks about how the “Ascension” was mentioned in a book Giles hid from her but that she read anyway- and she says this in front of Giles. This is the same girl who in the episode before did everything Giles asked her without complaint or delay. If he said jump, her response would be to ask how high. But now she’s willing to incur his wrath in her pursuit of magical knowledge and abilities, which even then with her fledgling power was a major source of self-esteem for Willow that gave her a greater sense of agency.

Two episodes later, Willow goes on a black-ops mission that results in Faith kidnapping her on behalf of the Mayor. Willow kills her captor vampire (with magic), sneaks around City Hall, and snoops through the evil Mayor’s stuff until she finds key documents that she filches. Faith discovers Willow in the Mayor’s office and threatens her with a knife, but Willow doesn’t even flinch. After a tense hostage exchange, Willow is reunited with Buffy and the Scoobies and is able to provide them with the invaluable information in the documents she stole. The old Willow, pre-encounter with her vampire self, might not have had the self-confidence to attempt these feats if it were not for seeing her “evil twin” show strength, courage, and leadership qualities that gave Vamp Willow power and control. It’s possible that old Willow would have taken the route Faith at the time called sensible- fleeing the building as fast as possible and not dilly-dallying in City Hall trying to find useful information while vampires might be looking for her. The information Willow acquired proves helpful to the gang as they battle the mayor. Being aggressive and not meek once again gets Willow results.

Several episodes later, Willow bursts through another one of the self-imposed barriers she considered after encountering Vamp Willow but before seeing the results her evil doppelganger got with Percy. Yes, that’s right, Willow loses her virginity to Oz. And they are all lovey-dovey afterwards. Would old Willow have done this? Maybe, maybe not, but clearly the new Willow did and is happier for it. Percy shows up once in the next season and calls Willow a nerd when he doesn’t realize Willow is listening in, a statement which puts Willow’s back up as she points out the ways she is not the nerd-like character she used to be. Willow has dramatically changed since high school, and she wants people to recognize that fact.

Through the next few seasons, Willow grows enormously in magical power, self-confidence, and
assertiveness so that by the end of the season five she is able to go head-to-head with a god for a short period of time. In season six she raises Buffy from the grave and scares away the very powerful demon Sweet. Her wardrobe changes accordingly. But at the same time, the unique mixture of her magical power and desire to control things and make them better leaders her to tamper with Tara’s memory, poison that relationship, and then stumble through many of the stages of addiction (to magic). Things are just starting to look up for Willow by the end of the sixth season, when (spoiler alert) Tara is shot by Warren and Willow tries but fails to bring back Tara from the dead with magic. As a result Willow turns into Darth Willow and flays Warren alive, hurts her friends, and tries to end the world. Sounds like something Vamp Willow might do if she could, right?

I’d argue that this chain of events shows that Willow saw the positive results that come from being more like Vamp Willow, internalized those lessons and applied them to her life, became more self-confident and assertive, but then eventually went too far and turned into a being 100x worse than Vamp Willow. Willow’s encounter with her doppelganger initiated a slow but dramatic transformation in her character, mostly for the better (other than when she was addicted to magic and depressed due to Tara’s death). But in season 5 and 7, just before and after her darkest period, Willow is mystically more powerful than Buffy, capable of holding down serious relationships, and serves as the leader of the White Hats/Scooby Gang/Potential Slayers in Buffy’s absence.

Fear Itself - good or bad episode?

I happen to agree that while "Fear Itself" was an entertaining episode, it didn't quite reach the level of wittiness and self-awareness that I have come to typically expect of Buffy episodes. The characters, in addition, do not engage with their fears as much as they could if Joss Whedon were have them personally identifying them instead of just alluding to them -- thereby anchoring to the text possible solutions.

But what I thought was interesting is related to what some other people have brought up in posts already – the physical containment of the characters’ fears. Shouldn’t that make their problems more manifest? Shouldn’t that have the effect of highlighting fears instead of making them more intangible? In fact, I think part of what makes this episode rather gothic is the idea that physical containment – especially that which places characters near just those people with whom their fears are associated – will only make the characters more focused on each other and less on the actual, psychological source of their stress. The fear demon is extremely small but maybe only in the context of what seems like a very large, labyrinthine dorm. In keeping with that idea, one of the characters (I don’t remember who), notes that “No matter how hard you fight, you just end up in the same place.” So regardless of whatever it is they seem to have done throughout the episode to separate out their actual fears from the distractions of what their relationships appear to be, the characters all end up in the same place. They haven’t really solved anything, despite their creepy, sinuous wanderings through the house.

The Man Behind the Cape

2011 Radio Interview with Dracula

JERRY

Welcome back to LITE FM. Tonight we have a special guest interview with the one and only…Dracula! He’s here in the studio with me right now, so listen up ladies because I hear he knows how to treat a woman!

DRACULA

Thanks, Jer. Happy to be here.

JERRY

So as per our usual routine I’m going to ask you a series of set questions so that our listeners can get to know you a little bit better.

DRACULA

Excellent.

JERRY

First question: What has been the most significant accomplishment in your life and why?

DRACULA

Good question, I’d have to say that my most important achievement to date has been my mastery of the Water Cycle. I know that answer may be surprising but weather has always fascinated me. Moreover, this knowledge has been integral to my understanding of the world and myself.

JERRY

Haha, well that’s a first! What’s your favorite kind of weather?

DRACULA

Fog. Next question.

JERRY

Okay, so at what point does a girl become a woman?

DRACULA

I’ve actually considered this question a lot these days but I think a girl becomes a woman when she becomes too big to carry off easily in the middle of the night.

JERRY

Excuse me?

DRACULA

Uh. Well. It’s harder to sweep a woman off her feet because she already has misconceptions about the trustworthiness of men. What? Did you think I was talking about kidnapping children or something crazy?

JERRY

Right…Well I guess that means we don’t have the typical misogynistic heart breaker in our studio tonight.

DRACULA

Heh.

JERRY

So do you consider yourself a giver or a taker?

DRACULA

I think any successful relationship has a mix of both. Honestly, I’m probably more of a taker but the key to maintaining any sense of balance is mutual consent.

JERRY

Uhp, looks like we got an old fashioned gentleman in the studio tonight! He asks for permission and everything! So who do you think is the most popular person in the world right now?

DRACULA

Lady Gaga, hands down. I absolutely LOVE her song “Marry the Night,” not to mention “Bad Romance”!

JERRY

Hmm, wasn’t expecting that, not gonna lie. Anyway, what would you like to see done to improve the public’s understanding of the importance of organ donation?

DRACULA

I think we should kill everyone who doesn’t agree to participate in organ donation. This would leave a lasting impression on the survivors and create new normative practices…uh-huh-uh, jokes! I think we should have celebrities like Sarah Michelle Gellar speak in informative commercials on TV to educate the youth about the vitality of this issue.

JERRY

I have to admit, she was great in Buffy! She could say something like, “Take organ donation seriously or I’ll slay you!”

Well that’s all the time we have on the show tonight. Thanks for stopping by and giving us the opportunity to ask you a few questions. Don’t forget your fedora!

DRACULA

Ha, thank you – it has been a real pleasure. It’s going to be sad to see you go.

For my “Buffy vs. Dracula” post I wanted to do something different and creative so I made this script to further the manifestation of the Dracula mythos in contemporary society. I liked how Spike subverts the Dracula convention by discussing his “actual” personality. This element of the episode is both comical and intriguing. I hope that I accomplished this same effect by depicting the characteristics of Stoker’s traditional Dracula in an original, amusing, and self-aware manner.