I agree with you that Alex shows that slayers can't not be slayers, but oddly others take her as evidence of the exact opposite conclusion.
Well, that's Jossverse fandom for you. :-) I don't think there's a single scene in any of the series that hasn't been given diametrically opposed interpretations...
But you're right that it was originally meant to be seen as "good" -- which would point us at plan "c".
In fact, the "Chosen" spell is a plan C. As, presumably, are a lot of the decisions Buffy made in the intervening years. And IMO, there has to be a plan C coming here; going back to how things were before would not only completely wreck the intended metaphor of "Chosen" (the message would basically be "women's liberation BAD") but would look like (and be) a defeat within the story as well. And leaving things as they are is just... unthinkable, since they are currently marching straight over a cliff. I still say the needed solution isn't to take away their physical powers, but to grant them ideological power; to turn them from an army where everyone follows orders and trains in unison into a group of individuals who all have the power to fight their own demons their own way. But Joss seems to know how it's going to end already, so I guess we'll see.
if you can't tell the difference between intentional omissions and careless omissions it becomes really hard to know how to read the thing.
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Date: 2009-07-07 08:42 pm (UTC)I agree with you that Alex shows that slayers can't not be slayers, but oddly others take her as evidence of the exact opposite conclusion.
Well, that's Jossverse fandom for you. :-) I don't think there's a single scene in any of the series that hasn't been given diametrically opposed interpretations...
But you're right that it was originally meant to be seen as "good" -- which would point us at plan "c".
In fact, the "Chosen" spell is a plan C. As, presumably, are a lot of the decisions Buffy made in the intervening years. And IMO, there has to be a plan C coming here; going back to how things were before would not only completely wreck the intended metaphor of "Chosen" (the message would basically be "women's liberation BAD") but would look like (and be) a defeat within the story as well. And leaving things as they are is just... unthinkable, since they are currently marching straight over a cliff. I still say the needed solution isn't to take away their physical powers, but to grant them ideological power; to turn them from an army where everyone follows orders and trains in unison into a group of individuals who all have the power to fight their own demons their own way. But Joss seems to know how it's going to end already, so I guess we'll see.
if you can't tell the difference between intentional omissions and careless omissions it becomes really hard to know how to read the thing.
Yup, yes, and also uh-huh.