I wanted to write about feminism but it looks like everyone beat me to it so instead I will write about love. One of my favorite parts of the episode was when Xander said that rejection from a girl is like getting your heart pulled out and crushed. I like this because it shows the marriage between love and death. This whole episode is about Impata trying to defy her curse/death to follow her heart. Until the end, it worked! It seemed that she was going to have her wish and live happily ever after with Xander. Then right before she dies, she selfishly chooses life over love. While she did not die because she broke off her love with Xander, it cannot be a coincidence that denying him preceded her death. Even for ancient Mayan succubi, love is in some sense a symbol for life. You could also get a sense that Carmilla had a similar goal. Her demise is not as symbolic, but it seemed to me that part of her needed the companionship of her victims just as much as she needed their blood. She could have easily snuck into their houses and haunted them in their sleep but instead she got close with her victims and started to love them. Even her existence as a vampire stems from a vicious love triangle! The point is that love seems to be a commonality between humans and demons. It is the one thing we have seen to affect everyone the same. Despite their might, vampires, like humans, can both be victims of love.
I think you make a really good point about supernatural Gothic creatures being the victims of love. In some respects a monster doing horrible things out of love is much scarier than one on a basic killing spree. Maybe the love-struck monsters represent the awful things people do in the name of love in real life.
ReplyDeleteNice post. Although vampires and humans can both be victims of love, this path is only available to vampires when they are believed to be humans. Had the lover know the person he/she loves is dead already, I doubt there will be love between the two. Thus, on a fundamental level, I think that only humans can be victims of love.
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose to write about love instead - the normal, relationship element of the episode is overshadowed by the fact that the girl is a dead Mayan princess. The sadness of the love story interwoven gets lost in the horror of the fact that she has to kill to survive. It's easy to demonize her for this, but she's a girl who has to choose life or love - the survival instinct is strong, but it's clear that the affection she has for Xander is genuine. She's a person, not a demon, and it's a hard choice that she has to make.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting point Dylan, I think you are onto something. What I surmised from this episode about the nature of love is that it is the defining characteristic of human life. While characters such as Impata and Carmilla show hints of having this capacity, it is difficult to say whether or not they are truly experiencing love as humans do, and not simple animalistic attraction based upon their need to survive. What clearly separates Buffy and the Scooby Gang from demons such as the aforementioned examples, is that as humans they always choose love and compassion over the alternative, which is what makes them human and by association, "good".
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