Re: OT: SPOIL 7.1: More on responsibility

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Jason,

three

excellent  

questions

you've

raised 

here,

but

I 

think

I 

can

rebut two of them.


1) Why doesn't Buffy tell everyone about the vampires, etc?

I think we basically got the answer in "Gingerbread" (at least before
the "it was all the demon's work" reset button damaged the ep)--not
everyone can cope with this. Those not dedicated to the cause, the way
a Watcher or a Slayer (or someone whose life revolves around one of the
above is), tend to react emotionally. Put too many of them together,
and rationality will break down, with everyone's fears and anxieties
feeding each other's, and mob psychology will take over and run
unchecked.

There's a fic on another list where the gang has heavily armed the
Sunnydale P.D., who now have special teams that go around blasting
demons to pieces with their fancy guns. The author has them leaving the
corpses lying around, supposedly a silent reminder of what would happen
if the cops hadn't been able to stop the demons, and which, according to
the author, stops folks from complaining about the police budget or the
noise the guns make all night. The fic's incomplete, but I think the
author thinks this is a good thing. Myself, I'm cringing at the thought
of all that heavily-armed testosterone running around, and wondering
what sort of "accident" would befall someone who *did* criticize the
Sunnydale PD and it's "action teams". I'm also wondering how long it is
until the cops decide that the Slayers (Faith's in this one, too) are
unnecessary middlemen with unstable psyches and decide to "retire" them
and deal with the special-arms dealers themselves.

All systems tend towards chaos, so I think that Buffy etal are right to
try and limit the number of potential wild-cards introduced

2) Why did Xander rebuild the school right above the Hellmouth?

Actually, he says he has crews working on the gym and the science
building, but doesnt' say they built the whole school. (That'd take
monts, right?) If he'd built the Principal's office, why would he have
to cross-check the plans to see what he'd built it on? Sounds like
Xander's gang is likely a latecomer brought in for some touch-up work
on the school.

3) What's up with the gov? Why not follow up the Initiative?

Got to agree, which is why the whole Init plot never clicked. Secret
Base (right below the town where the Mayor ran things) but no one finds
out? And then they just quit? Yep, sounds lame to me, too.

Dan