Outfits, Lightsaber duels and Lesbian Willow.

To say that I have a slight fondness for Wikipedia is to say that Buffy has a slight fondness for pleather. A simple check of George Washington’s birth date and I will find myself four hours later glued to an article detailing the rules of light saber dueling. So when I turned to Wikipedia in order to refresh my memory of the episode, I veered into dangerous territory: the article on evil twins. After wading through some very detailed descriptions of Wonder Women, my attention was drawn to the physical disparities between doubles. From glasses, goth lipstick to the clichéd goatee of Spock in Star Wars, the exterior plays an important part in defining the roles of characters.

Willow begins the episode as an oversized child. Her outfit, a fluffy reveals her innocence. She is neither put together nor cohesive, a clash of patterns and tights and (shudder) sneakers. Her incohesive outfit choice both reflects her sunny personality and the insecurity of her character. Upon first glimpse of her, Vampwill notes with disdain “Well, look at me, I’m all fuzzy.” The double-meaning of fuzzy (fuzzy as well, fuzzy, and fuzzy as sweetness and confusion) demonstrates the importance of Willow’s appearance as a character of both good and insecurity.

Vampwill’s outfit serves to portray the corruption of sweet Willow’s character to both the audience and to the other characters. Without witnessing evil deeds, her black sexy ensemble reveals her intentions. Dark lipstick and a leather suit mark her as something dangerous, sexualized and non-Willow, that we cannot help but assume the worst. While wearing Vampwill’s outfit, Willow herself recognizes the importance of the exterior in marking her personality. “Look at my outfit! I’m a bloodsucking fiend!” Her acceptance of the exterior in reflecting and reinforcing the interior reveals the importance of, well, outfits.

This episode itself seems to play upon literary stereotypes of evil twin-dom. Buffy the good slayer is blonde and light, Faith the bad slayer is brunette and coarse, Giles is older and wiser than Wesley. Yet the series itself is devoting to undermining these stereotypes of the gothic. Buffy’s exterior, that of a beautiful cheerleader, belies the steely power that being the slayer grants her. Her outside appearance contradicts the stereotypes we’ve come to expect. In Buffy, two distinctly different tropes exist internally: that of a beautiful cheerleader and that of an ass-kicking demon-slayer. While Faith provides us with an external doppelganger, her real double exists inside.

At the end of Doppelgangland, evil vampWillow is killed and all returns to normal. Willow returns to her uniform of ugly sweaters and floral skirts with tights. When the sudden niceness of Percy reminds her of the benefits of her evil self, she sits ups straighter, gains a new confident and resolves to go out. We can see the change in Willow is for the better, despite her maintenance of the fuzzy. Yet all this focus on the exterior during the show has allowed us insight into her interior, her feelings of rejection, her future sexuality and even her power as a witch. In Buffy, yet again, Joss manages to use gothic tropes to reveal more complex characters than stereotypes we originally perceived.

Thank God that’s done. I was in the middle of a mad-Wiki sesh on Joaquin Phoenix. Who knows why.