Buffy killed Hansel and Gretel. As achievements go, that's pretty big.)
Indeed. I'm sure there's a very deep metaphorical message here that I need to parse out (no doubt someone else already has - it sounds like the sort of thing to inspire a hundred masters' thesis); I suppose it has something to do with Joss' atheism on one level - that "fairy tales" can be read as "religion", as the belief in the unseen, the magical, the irrational?
I don't think the writers intended anything that deep - or maybe they did? I've watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" doc and what bothered me about his attitude in it was how he failed to see how his insistence that he was right and people of faith are wrong, is an exact mirror for how religions have keep followers in line "I know what's good for you". And also his failure to see the same sort of hive-mind thinking that religions encourage as part and parcel of ANY organization with a hierarchial structure: political parties ("A vote for my opponent will hasten nuclear war!"), corporations ("You will be happier if you use our detergent because your whites will be whiter than white!") And so forth.
This ties in neatly with "Helpless" and it's condemnation of the WC, and Buffy's rejection of it, repeated in Graduation Day, Checkpoint and Chosen. She also rejects the First Slayer's message in Restless. Buffy (and Willow) are the characters who live in the now, ignore history except as it is useful to them, and reject the old rules and restrictions (as local_max has pointed out, Willow is interested in magic but not in a religious or spiritual context - she calls on Osiris not because she worships him but because he's the god who can help her get the job done.)
Of course rejecting all rules and history wholesale has it's downsides as well - Willow could have used some checks and balances pre S7, and Buffy ends up going back to both the First Slayer (Intervention) and Spike (FFL). Her decision to activate the Slayer spell is only possible after she has a better understanding of the history of the WC and the Slayers - Henry Ford's famous "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".
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Date: 2012-12-14 02:14 pm (UTC)Indeed. I'm sure there's a very deep metaphorical message here that I need to parse out (no doubt someone else already has - it sounds like the sort of thing to inspire a hundred masters' thesis); I suppose it has something to do with Joss' atheism on one level - that "fairy tales" can be read as "religion", as the belief in the unseen, the magical, the irrational?
I don't think the writers intended anything that deep - or maybe they did? I've watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" doc and what bothered me about his attitude in it was how he failed to see how his insistence that he was right and people of faith are wrong, is an exact mirror for how religions have keep followers in line "I know what's good for you". And also his failure to see the same sort of hive-mind thinking that religions encourage as part and parcel of ANY organization with a hierarchial structure: political parties ("A vote for my opponent will hasten nuclear war!"), corporations ("You will be happier if you use our detergent because your whites will be whiter than white!") And so forth.
This ties in neatly with "Helpless" and it's condemnation of the WC, and Buffy's rejection of it, repeated in Graduation Day, Checkpoint and Chosen. She also rejects the First Slayer's message in Restless. Buffy (and Willow) are the characters who live in the now, ignore history except as it is useful to them, and reject the old rules and restrictions (as local_max has pointed out, Willow is interested in magic but not in a religious or spiritual context - she calls on Osiris not because she worships him but because he's the god who can help her get the job done.)
Of course rejecting all rules and history wholesale has it's downsides as well - Willow could have used some checks and balances pre S7, and Buffy ends up going back to both the First Slayer (Intervention) and Spike (FFL). Her decision to activate the Slayer spell is only possible after she has a better understanding of the history of the WC and the Slayers - Henry Ford's famous "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".