Which intersects with the idea of ~writing~ Slayerhood on the body in "Chosen" for the potentials who weren't offering themselves up as sheets of paper to be developed and published for all the world. Overwriting someone else's life narrative, overwriting their body. An unintended consequence of Buffy's [and Willow's] action. In trying to rewrite the myth, she oversteps.
Definitely - though in a way, they were already in the myth, just not the protagonists of it. The Potentials are introduced as cannon fodder by right of birth; rather anviliciously so, even. There's something really skeevy in the way s7 almost revels in helpless girls getting cut down because they might be Slayers someday.
Just now picking up on that connection (thanks to your meta) about how Buffy's trying to robe herself in a more formal political identity through her job as Counselor (her own Council).
Political - absolutely! Buffy does everything to build a mandate throughout s7, to get a legitimate power base, especially after the potentials show up. That's what the entire row in "Empty Places" is about: if they don't trust her, she has no power over them, and then there's no power to share.
It's interesting to think about the necessity of removing the Watcher's Council from the picture, yet it's not Buffy who plays the role of radical revolutionary -- it's the First and Caleb as the First's emissary. So Super EVIL takes out the Patriarchy (tho the target was the intellectual resources, education, and strategy that the Council could provide if they weren't intent on withholding).
Two thoughts about that: 1) Buffy rejected the Council in s5. Understandable? Hell yes. Admirable? Yes. Correct? Absolutely. But knowledge, whatever the source, is vital and there's only so much you can do with raw revolutionary enthusiasm - wiping the slate clean and starting over is rarely a good idea. Giles rescues a few key books from the Council's library, much like Buffy rescues a few key aspects of Slayerdom while she burns the old structures to the ground. 2) The First is inherently kyriarchic - viz its use of Caleb as a footsoldier. It's What Was And Will Always Be personified (well, not really personified, but y'know.) And by yourself you know others: to the First, the Council is a threat that must be neutralised, because they're old and male and well-informed and powerful and Have Always Been - nevermind that if they'd actually ever joined the fight, they're more likely to have got in Buffy's way and caused internal conflicts. Buffy doesn't defeat The First by becoming more powerful, but by not relying on a story that The First is familiar with. The First thinks it burns Buffy's bridges, when all it does is cut her bonds.
no subject
Which intersects with the idea of ~writing~ Slayerhood on the body in "Chosen" for the potentials who weren't offering themselves up as sheets of paper to be developed and published for all the world. Overwriting someone else's life narrative, overwriting their body. An unintended consequence of Buffy's [and Willow's] action. In trying to rewrite the myth, she oversteps.
Definitely - though in a way, they were already in the myth, just not the protagonists of it. The Potentials are introduced as cannon fodder by right of birth; rather anviliciously so, even. There's something really skeevy in the way s7 almost revels in helpless girls getting cut down because they might be Slayers someday.
Just now picking up on that connection (thanks to your meta) about how Buffy's trying to robe herself in a more formal political identity through her job as Counselor (her own Council).
Political - absolutely! Buffy does everything to build a mandate throughout s7, to get a legitimate power base, especially after the potentials show up. That's what the entire row in "Empty Places" is about: if they don't trust her, she has no power over them, and then there's no power to share.
It's interesting to think about the necessity of removing the Watcher's Council from the picture, yet it's not Buffy who plays the role of radical revolutionary -- it's the First and Caleb as the First's emissary. So Super EVIL takes out the Patriarchy (tho the target was the intellectual resources, education, and strategy that the Council could provide if they weren't intent on withholding).
Two thoughts about that:
1) Buffy rejected the Council in s5. Understandable? Hell yes. Admirable? Yes. Correct? Absolutely. But knowledge, whatever the source, is vital and there's only so much you can do with raw revolutionary enthusiasm - wiping the slate clean and starting over is rarely a good idea. Giles rescues a few key books from the Council's library, much like Buffy rescues a few key aspects of Slayerdom while she burns the old structures to the ground.
2) The First is inherently kyriarchic - viz its use of Caleb as a footsoldier. It's What Was And Will Always Be personified (well, not really personified, but y'know.) And by yourself you know others: to the First, the Council is a threat that must be neutralised, because they're old and male and well-informed and powerful and Have Always Been - nevermind that if they'd actually ever joined the fight, they're more likely to have got in Buffy's way and caused internal conflicts. Buffy doesn't defeat The First by becoming more powerful, but by not relying on a story that The First is familiar with. The First thinks it burns Buffy's bridges, when all it does is cut her bonds.