Re: Would Buffy quit?

["ivygort" <ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

She DID go through a burned out period in Seasons 5 and 6.  But, she
still had her sense of responsibility, and of course, those
particular unique Slayer drives.  I don't think the craving was
because of the enjoining spell.  A lot of Season 3 was about
beginning to explore that dark side of her nature.  That was the
whole point of Faith, she was Buffy's dark mirror, her alter ego,
all this stuff that being the Slayer has made her, but she keeps
locked inside.

> As much as Faith was supposed to be her dark mirror she really didn't
start the hunting aspect of her personality until after the spell.  I felt
Faith/Mayor were the mirror to Buffy/Giles.  That it was about what happens
when you didn't have the love and the support of family and friends.  There
was only one scene in the entire season where Buffy acted without
forethought and that was at the docks when she confronted Faith.  In the
season five opener it is pointed out that since the spell she's gone out
hunting.  That's why I use it as the demarcation point for the change in
her.

By Seasons 5 and 6, though, she was wondering if
this was all she was, this hunter/preditor who's very nature made
her not the best girlfriend material, made some semblance of a
normal life impossible, and the weight of the world had gotten heavy.

> She started wondering that after the death of her mother in season five.
The entire vision quest to the First Slayer and the words, (I've forgotten
them exactly) Give, forgive, love, you are full love.  And she did wonder at
that time if she was girlfriend material until "I Was Made To Love You" when
she finally accepted that it wasn't her fault all her boyfriends left, it
was theirs.  The entire scene with Xander and then her call to Ben proved
that in my eyes.  Though, that was easily over looked considering the next
episode was the body.

> Never once in Season Six did she act like the hunter or predator, she acted
like the victim.  Her depression, her self-centeredness, while she had a
great a reason for it all, she wasn't a Slayer.  At no time in season six
did I feel like she was accepting of her responsibility as a Slayer.  It
just seemed like one more burden.

She got through that, but her sense of responsibility is still
there, and she'll ALWAYS be a Slayer.  It's like how a certain
friend of hers can't just walk away from magic, now, because it's
too much a part of her.  AND, she has the same sense of
responsibility to the world.

> Not during season six and most of 7.  She made it clear at the end of six
that her focus was going to be on Dawn.  Showing Dawn how to live in the
world.  In 7 she never once asked for the leadership role, it was forced
upon her.  In watching "Bring on the Night" this afternoon, only the second
time I've seen it, Giles puts more and more pressure on her until she is
stupid and lets her guard down.

Again, she's accepted the responsibility, and spent the show's last
year growing into the leadership role.  Fighting the demonic forces
in the world, helping people, is what she WANTS to do.  A Buffy led
Council isn't going to be like Travers's.

> I didn't see her growing at all in the final season.  I saw her falling
back into old bad habits.  Keeping her thoughts to herself, shutting her
friends out of the choices, being single minded ... but then again the last
two year had the writers feuding on which way the story should go so the
story was very inconsistent.  As I said earlier I truely believe that there
is no "right" answer to this question.

(>On a side note.  I couldn't answer your other post because of the mention
of Angel. I don't watch Angel.)



Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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