Xander became a man when he lost his eye. Or possibly when he told Dawn he knew what it was like not to be special.

I think when he talked to Dawn. He'd become a man before that, we just hadn't realized it.

He'd become a man before that, we just hadn't realized it.

Well, it was fairly recent -- cf. the end of "Hell's Bells."

Now you get the whole thing, also available here.

Buffy starts, and effectively ends, in High School.

It's all about power: the things that have power over you.

The burden of being the nerd, or the normal guy, or the one with all the potential, or the good girl, or the bad girl. Kind of like the Breakfast Club, but with blood instead of blunts. (Curse you, deleted scene!)

Show not called The Scooby Gang, so we're going to focus on Buffy, because that's what the show did. Conversations with Dead People. Inferiority/Superiority complex? It's all pretty much there.

I was thinking about Buffy/Faith, and how they were the real tragic romance of the 'verse, all the while dealing with some non-show discussions I've been having in Natter, and it clicked.

See, when Buffy lost her standing when she was called (which can be a metaphor for anything that happens to you to isolate you from the group, and I'll go into that later, because I'm in a hurry), all she had to fall back on as an emotional crutch was that she was Chosen. She was Special. It's how children console themselves all the time, at least in the US. Other kids don't like you? Pick your label of Otherness (smart, pretty, bookish), and that's why. It's a coping strategy.

So Kendra shows up, and Buffy's not so special, but it doesn't really register as deeply as when Faith shows up, because not only is Faith Special the same way Buffy's Special, but Faith's funny, sexy, and, well. She's FAITH. Special, but as Buffy sees her (not how she is, but as Buffy sees her), not hemmed in by all the pesky feelings of duty and the burdens of Slayerhood. Faith (as Buffy sees her) is all that and free.

Except she's not. That illusion crumbles, because Faith's as fucked up as Buffy, but in different ways. And (we're sticking to metaphor here), the friendship crumbles with the illusion. Happens in high school all the time.

Faith's still a theme, she's still in the back of Buffy's mind, and the back of the viewers mind, as the show continues. By S6, everything's fallen to crap, Buffy's potential has amounted to losing heaven and working fast food. She has to cling to that crutch of Golden Memory (the good parts of what made her Special and Other are what got her into Heaven), and it makes her isolated and bitter. And she's acting out in very Faith-like ways. Then you have the sort-of epiphany of Grave, and it seems all will be good, right? Wrong. Buffy's still got her Specialness issues to deal with.

So we get to S7.

Where we go back to school. Back to where it all started. All the demons, all the problems, all the issues all bring you back to school. The First Evil, all the nasty shit that's inside everyone says it's all about Power.

It is. But it's about the power things have over you when you let them, and how to break that power of its hold.

It's about releasing the baggage of high school and childhood, which includes the baggage of what makes you special, all those labels of "smart" and "jock" and "diva" and all that. Releasing the grudges, and seeing what you have in common, not what keeps you apart. Buffy thinks she can lead by clinging to the Special label, can teach by teaching all these girls that they, too, may be Special. In a way, she's like the football coach who can't let go of the time he saved the Homecoming game.

But that's not how it works, and that's not what growing up is about.

So we go back to Buffy and Faith. We see revolution, and we see the shoes swapping feet. Buffy's the isolated one who has fucked up. She's in Faith's shoes. Faith's the leader dealing with the fallout.

She's in Buffy's shoes.

And suddenly, they understand each other in a way that wasn't happening before. It's not "I was special first!" or "I'm special, too!" hairpulling. It's a recognition of what they have in common. Not just recognizing it, but accepting it deep down.

And this is where the powering up the Potentials comes in. It's the metaphor for really and truly letting go of that thing that made you Special, made you Other, and seeing the points of connection instead of the points of separation and isolation.

It's about growing up and letting go, accepting your responsibilities for your own actions, forgiving the actions of others, and moving on.

stands and applauds

I want to watch Chosen again now.

Damn, Plei. I want to have your babies. And that gave me goosebumps.

throws virtual roses, corsets, glitter and money in Plei's direction.

Then, golf claps.

Plei, you just performed a miracle. I am reconciled with S7. A couple more, and it's Saint Plei.

if we don't carefully monitor her epiphany intake she'll just sit in a corner with the bucket saying "duuuuuude" every five minutes or so, and eventually waste away to nothing from lack of eating.

hmmm, wasting away you say? I'll have one bucket of epiphany...as long as it isn't a metaphor for Justine's bucket, 'cause...eww.

Excellent, Ple, particularly the dance (metaphorical in this case) between Faith and Buffy. I think you might've hit on the metaphorical undercurrent that allowed Joss to have Buffy kicked out of the house even when on a surface level that never made much sense. But on the metaphorical level you're describing it's almost inevitable that Buffy had to go back to being completely isolated (as she was in Becoming II), though it means something very different here than it did then. Also, Faith had to be pulled into the group and be the leader - even if it was just for a brief and symbolic time.

Heh, did the smartness discussion in Natter feed into your thoughts on this?

Heh, did the smartness discussion in Natter feed into your thoughts on this?

Oh yeah, and some other discussions had relating to that discussion.