The more I study Buffy in this class, the more I fall in love with the series. Joss Whedon really did know exactly what he was doing, the whole time. Everything about the presentation of Dracula in “Buffy vs. Dracula” screams tongue-in-cheek. I didn’t understand certain aspects of the behaviors and references before reading Dracula, but now everything about the episode is way more interesting.
That being said, I want to briefly revisit the question we explored at the end of class – why did Whedon choose to include this episode now, at the beginning of the fifth season? I spoke a little about the juxtaposition it presents between New World and Old World powers. The last season just ended with a clash of Buffy’s ancient powers and today’s obsession with empirical studies. Having a “count encounter” now reminds the viewer of the other forces in the world besides underground military operations. We think of Dracula as old world relative to today, but Buffy’s power is much older than even him, harnessed from almost the dawn of time. Relative to that, Dracula’s assertion that he knows all about the slayer’s power and that her darkness rivals his own, seems a little ridiculous. Dracula is, after all, just an old vampire; in Buffy’s world, this means a human died and a demon set up shop in his body. Buffy’s power, as we find out later in the seasons, is “rooted in darkness” because it actually does come from the demon side of things. Fire to fight fire. Buffy struggles with this constantly, fighting evil with evil power and good intentions. So although Dracula at this point serves to point back to the Old World and how Buffy is suspended between the two, he also provides a spring board for Buffy’s further study of her ancient power. In the end, her love and courage are more powerful than her physical strength, although that certainly helps a lot in fighting Glory, the big bad of this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment