Re: ::BuffyWantsWillow:: "Seduction"_and_Fire--SPOILERS_for_"Gone" (long)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Kathy,

Thanks for the great fb. And after getting my ass chewed off at the
Cross & Stake over this (oddly enough by a gay girl who virulently
insisted I had no idea what I was talking about and never could), I need
a little love from the Mother 'ship. Thanks again.

Hey look, 8:00, no more Spoiler Space!

I agree, it wouldn't have to look like she only did it because of a bad
relationship; I'm just worried it might. OTOH, they've been so
reluctant to be honest about Spike, maybe she'll fall for Willow and
he'll be a prince about it. Naaaah?

I can't think that this is Marti's idea of a healthy relationship (she
wrote the anti-battering "Beauty and the Beasts", after all), but she's
torn between her desire to tell the BatteredBuffy story and her love of
bad boys, James, and naked Spike. Yes, he can be seductive, yes, there
has to be a reason she starts it, but if it's going to be negative,
everyone should be able to see it or else you're just telling kids "no"
means "yes". Which will not be of the good. We've had twenty years of
battered wife stories, now, because she hit him first, he can hit back?
(Not that a relationship with her abusing him would be a good thing,
either, obviously) 

And you're right, she must have a very sensitive thigh. It can't be
his pheremones--he's dead, he doesn't have any natural musk.

On the "Whipped" thing, someone on another list said she was whipped
from "Becoming to Amends", so I have to clarify. Being whipped to me
means having no plan for life, no desire to make things work. Buffy's
had plans that wouldn't work, that crumpled at the first bump--

Example: Angel returns in "Beauty and the Beasts" and Buffy is lost.
But by the beginning of "Homecoming" she has a plan--hide Angel, lie to
everyone, have a normal life with Scott. It's a lousy plan, and the
"hide Angel" part has already driven Scott away, as she soon finds out.
but it's her plan and she's there fighting. Similarly, while she was
devastated by Joyce's death and it probably sent her on her S5 road to
suicide, she did have a plan by the end of "Forever".

--But now she's adrift. She has no idea how to deal with Spike, with
her friends, with raising Dawn and with finding a purpose in life.
She's unable to send Spike away (or express love for him, if she felt
that) she can't focus on Dawn, she doesn't have a job, etc.

Now, at least, she seems to be reaffirming a commitment to Willow and
actually wanting to keep Dawn. That's part of a plan, but she's not at
full fighting steam yet. If she was, she would have dissed Doris
Kroeger, not played pranks on her. And (will she never learn?) she's
lying, which will eventually bring new problems.

And I really have to wonder what a psychiatrist would say about Buffy
choosing Spike, esp. given her history with Angel. I was saying that
Willow is the opposite of Spike and might be a reaction to Buffy
breaking off B/S--perhaps B/S really is just a way for her to deal with
her feelings for Willow (which are now all complicated because of the
resurrection) by leaping into bed with the polar opposite in her life,
and proving "I'm not gay!" by sleeping with the man she likes the least.

Thanks again,

Dan