I'm thinking the "from beneath you, it devours" works with this also, if you use 'beneath' as either 'from the depths of your subconscious' or 'earlier in your life.'

However, Plei, I've started trying to poke holes in your analysis. Which is a compliment! I saw on your LJ that someone suggested your essay should be on the S7 DVDs, and you know, it should.

What about all the little girls getting the Slayer-ness? One of my favorite shots from Chosen is the softball batter getting that "Oh yeah" look...but aside from the mayhem thousands of un-Watched super-powered girls would wreak on the world, how does it fit with your idea? They don't have anything to get beyond (that we know of). Or does the message of having the power to let go of the bullshit apply only to Buffy (who is of course the whole point of the show)?

Your epiphany certainly explains why there were suddenly so many SiTs.

They don't have anything to get beyond (that we know of)

Not entirely true. Softball!girl was totally unsure of herself at bat and Curvy!Girl was getting abused.

Everybody's got their something...

t /nikka costa

(also, Plei? I read the LJ first, then caught up in here. So cool to watch you having the thought! I pictured you making Xander-like facial expressions)

but aside from the mayhem thousands of un-Watched super-powered girls would wreak on the world,

I interrupt to point out how much I hate this criticism of Chosen. This was said to keep women from getting the vote, to keep them out of the pulpit and public office, and the workforce, and from having a drink in goddamn public, to keep them from getting birth control, yada yada yada.

Of course there are risks, but it's worse to keep power from people to whom it rightfully belongs.

how does it fit with your idea? They don't have anything to get beyond (that we know of).

They don't have lives? Their worlds are demon free? I have never seen anything to suggest in the Jossverse that monsters aren't everywhere. Also, each of those girls was facing a challenge of one sort of another when she received her power.

edited really late, to prove I know the difference between there and their. Frig. I hate when my fingers do that.

Yeah, I'll let Cindy speak for me. *g*

Or I'll get deeper into it, later.

Yeah, I recognized the sexism in the way I typed the statement after I hit "post." To be more specific (and thus wordier), these girls are suddenly made different with no education, no context, nothing to help them out. They may hurt themselves or others accidentally, they may feel so alienated they will kill themselves, etc. It's a double-edged sword of a gift. Even without the super-power aspect, how many kids do you know who are born to parents who just have no clue how to raise the kid?

Some of the girls will learn the responsibility that comes with power, some will even learn this on their own, but most people with an edge do not become heroes. Most people (male or female) use their edge to dominate others or become so disconnected from their society that they are destructive or self-destructive. This is why we have parents and teachers and religion and role models, and the non-SiT girls who got the Slayer-power have no one who is prepared to deal with them. Sure, they MIGHT do great good, but human history doesn't tend that way.

Within the Buffyverse, even, the existence of a Slayer had to be one-at-a-time, even though the world or at least Cleveland could clearly use a few more. My understanding (from the Botox demon or somewhere) was that the simultaneous existence of two Slayers, what with Buffy's resurrection and all, had put things out of balance enough to let the First Evil spring into action. So even within the show itself and not looking at human history and behaviour, it would seem that MORE active Slayers would be even worse, for purposes of good/evil balance.

They don't have lives? There worlds are demon free?

I am sure they aren't demon-free worlds. But we weren't shown how they had taken what made them different and used it to prop themselves up.

Softball!girl was totally unsure of herself at bat

but we don't see her saying "Well, I may not be good at softball, but I'm smart!" That's where the parallel with Plei's arc for Buffy breaks down. Buffy uses "I'm Special" to prop herself up against "I'm not able to really be one of the gang." She lets the specialness go, quits allowing the isolation to have power over her. Does the softball girl let the smarts go, quit letting her inability to hit the ball have power? We don't know. In fact, the implication is that now she's going to knock the cover off the ball and will have every confidence in playing softball, so she gets the magic pill crammed down her throat.

How is that going to affect her development as a person? And that question is why I worry about the results of a legion of hyped-up children. That they all happen to be girls is not relevant.

Edited for grammar and making-of-the-sense. ^_^

but aside from the mayhem thousands of un-Watched super-powered girls would wreak on the world,

My concern was more along the lines of "the mayhem thousands of un-Watched super-powered ANYBODYs would wreak on the world."

All superpowers should go to me. I'd use them responsibly. To right wrongs and ensure justice and to get me alot of stuff. I mean, er, to uh...balance the...

Ah, hell, I'd use it to get me alot of stuff.

Hence...the problem.

"If I am granted Slayer powers, or Nightcrawler powers, or, you know, whatever, I solemnly swear that I will use my abilities to get Bush out of the White House."

"Who would I put in? Uh..I don't know. Not me, certainly - I don't want the job!"

"If I am granted Slayer powers, or Nightcrawler powers, or, you know, whatever, I solemnly swear that I will use my abilities to get Bush out of the White House."

"Who would I put in? Uh..I don't know. Not me, certainly - I don't want the job!"

Yeah, that's about it.

"I solemnly swear to, uh...do whatever I feel like. 'cause, you know...superpowers. What're YOU gonna do about it?"

Yeah, I recognized the sexism in the way I typed the statement after I hit "post." To be more specific (and thus wordier), these girls are suddenly made different with no education, no context, nothing to help them out.

And this is what they said about us voting. You don't think elections are life and death. Let's talk Iraq.

They may hurt themselves or others accidentally, they may feel so alienated they will kill themselves, etc. It's a double-edged sword of a gift. Even without the super-power aspect, how many kids do you know who are born to parents who just have no clue how to raise the kid?

This is all true. But it's theirs. It was their legacy and birthright. Buffy could have either (along with Faith) hogged it, and let the world end, or share it, and take the risk. Yes, there is always a huge risk when you empower people, whether you're emacipating them, or allowing them to vote, or drink, or drive, or whatever. But to use the "what if they do worst-case scenario" to stop people from claiming what's theirs, whether it's a God-given right (life, liberty, yada) or supernatural bloodline that endows physical prowess, because they might fuck up? You don't sterilize people ahead of time, because they might be rotten parents.

the non-SiT girls who got the Slayer-power have no one who is prepared to deal with them.

Buffy didn't know diddly when she got her powers. Who was prepared to deal with her? Giles? Buffy and Willow's plans include finding them. Given Willow's magical ability, and the fact that Giles has contacts, they'll find many, if not most of them. If not, and if X number go bad, is it any worse than the other monsters that are already out there?

Sure, they MIGHT do great good, but human history doesn't tend that way.

I disagree. Human history tends both ways. You've got your Hitlers. You've got your Mother Teresas.

I don't think this was a perfect solution. I think it was the only solution, and has already done more good than harm, because in the doing, they were able to save the world.

edited because Matt is delusional

They don't have anything to get beyond (that we know of). Or does the message of having the power to let go of the bullshit apply only to Buffy (who is of course the whole point of the show)?

She's letting go of the category of Special by sharing that Specialness with other people. By passing the power on. The problem is not the power itself, but what it means to people and how they use it.

The season opens with Buffy passing on her power/strength/Specialness in the way normal people do -- by teaching. She shares her power with Dawn by teaching her how to fight. The season closes with this becoming sharing her (literal) power via the show's metaphor of magic, with both signposts (sharing power with Willow in "Same Time, Same Place", working with Willow & Xander and training the SiTs during the Endless Expository Episodes) and speedbumps (aforesaid Endless Expository Episodes).