Season 7 thought
Nov. 23rd, 2004 07:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethIf I could eliminate one element in season 7, I would get rid of Axcalibur.
I think Axcalibur was meant to be a symbol of Slayer power, ancient and belonging to the Slayer. But
the thing is, we haven't ever needed a symbol of that before- the Slayer has always been the symbol.
Buffy has always been able to improvise. Right from the first episode, anything around her becomes a
weapon if she needs it to be. That always emphasised that it was Buffy who had the power, that it was
in her, not in any thing that was given or could be taken from her.
Introducing Axcalibur diluted that. As soon as it arrived, Slayer power was this big shiny metal created
thing. I realise it made a very clear visual to throw the ax from Slayer to Slayer once they all had the
power, but since there was only one ax to go around it did not in fact make a good visual for what
actually had happened, which was not so much passing around the power as all becoming
embodiments of it. Axcalibur made a bad symbol.
If the thing the First and Caleb were so desperate to obtain was instead the shiny amulet of
everything killing, that would make more sense. It would also make a new kind of sense of how the
First had always been out to get the Vampire with a Soul. If the First unearthed that ax, it still couldn't
be used. That power belonged to the Slayer. For anyone else, it was a shiny bit of metal.
But if the First unearthed the amulet of everything killing... imagine if that power had been unleashed
*on earth*. When it was set loose on the other side of the Hellmouth, it only trashed the ubervamp
dimension and the bit of earth in the fallout zone around the portal. But if Spike had been on *this*
side of the gateway- major, major damage. Bye bye North America. And if they're lucky and someone
mistakes it for a nuke, bye bye world.
The First couldn't control the Slayer. It didn't even try. To make her quit, yes, but not to turn her to its
purposes. But it could, and did, control the Vampire with a Soul. If that vamp was always destined to
use the amulet, then trying to get hold of the amulet makes sense in a way that digging for the ax
never did.
I realise Caleb was trying to take power away from women. But that doesn't change the fact that
owning the ax wouldn't have helped him. Stupid bad guys are always less fun, and do not make very
scary apocalypses. Everything they did to find the ax helped their opposition and only ever could have
helped their opposition. The amulet was a different deal.
I realise Angel turned up with the amulet and it was a whole plot thread in the next season of Angel. It
was not a particularly important thread. It can't have been, they never tied it up. Do we know at the
end of the season why the Senior Partners handed out that amulet, who it was meant for, why they
would have wanted Angel or Spike in that incorporeal form, who it was that brought it back from Hell,
ANY of the questions the amulet raised? No, and that gets rather annoying. So the season would be
stronger without the unresolved stuff. Lindsey could still claim connection to retrieving the amulet, but
the Senior Partners wouldn't be mixed up in it.
Angel could go visit Buffy just to offer her the backup he suddenly gained as CEO of W&H. Buffy could
send him home to build a second front. Then later Angel would be left doubly doubtful- Buffy doesn't
trust him now, so is that why she rejected him then? Much more fun that way.
The empowering of all the Slayers could, and to my mind *should*, have been done without the ax.
Like I said, dumb symbol. The symbol of Slayer power is, was and always should have been the Slayer
herself. Willow has previously accessed the archetypal Slayer power- in Primeval. She didn't have an
ax then, or need one. The share-the-power spell was simply a (much) larger version of that.
The other time Willow used power from a Slayer, it was from a Potential Slayer, Kennedy. In Get it
Done Willow drained power off Kennedy in order to reopen the portal. That was always slightly creepy.
Love shouldn't generally involve violent power drains that greatly resemble what veiny!Willow did to
Rack. But at the end of the season, instead of stealing Kennedy's power, Willow helps her access and
use it. That is the healthy supportive love makes you strong thing, and why it was Kennedy sat there
with Willow while she worked the spell.
Trouble is, presence of Axcalibur again obscures rather than illuminates, as it makes Kennedy into the
courier instead of making her an integral part of the process. If instead of using the ax as her
connection to the Slayer Willow used Kennedy- if her love connection to Kennedy also connected her to
that power- that would have been clearer, and more moving, and much better symbolism.
We would still have had Willow and Kennedy working together, Willow would still have gone all
'goddess' with white hair, but it would have been clear that it was because of love, just as clear as her
dark-hair phase had been because of love. This time the lesbian love would have led her to power,
again, but good power, shared and changing the world in a positive way. I think that is there in the
scene as shown, but the ax gets in the way. Because pointy sharp bit of metal leading to power is so
*very* not the point of the show, and love=power really really is the point.
Season 7 was kind of wonky in places, but to my mind just removing that stupid Ax would have fixed
most of them. It wasn't necessary, and it didn't make things clearer. We would have needed a new
symbol for 'power goes into slayer', but shiny lights have always been handy for that before, and it
would have been clear that it was all everyone at once, in a way using the ax for a symbol really wasnt.
The amulet was sort of
dropped in there at the last moment, especially if you just watch the Buffy story. If instead the amulet
was something that had been fought for and won on the Buffy show then it winning the day becomes
more meaningful. I mean as it stood it was something of a deus ex machina, dropped in for no effort
to create the huge effect. If it had been the amulet that they fought for instead of the ax then it
would, to me at least, be much more emotionally satisfying when it kicks ass at the end.
The Slayers would probably have defeated the Turok Han if all those thousands of Slayers could have
been brought to bear on the ubervamp army, but it would have been an apocalyptic event on a much
larger scale, and an ongoing battle rather than a decisive victory.
The empowerment of the Slayers didn't actually win the victory. It was love, not power, did that.
Amulet represented a different kind of symbol than the ax. Ax is easy to see as a weapon, as the
thing that kills people. With the amulet it is so harmless of itself it is easy to see that what wins is the
fire/passion/love/light/soul, amplified like a magnifying glass. Amulet was a good symbol.
Illuminated. Ax was not. Obscured. Making the amulet central instead of the ax would have been a
better story than the one that actually got told.
I think Axcalibur was meant to be a symbol of Slayer power, ancient and belonging to the Slayer. But
the thing is, we haven't ever needed a symbol of that before- the Slayer has always been the symbol.
Buffy has always been able to improvise. Right from the first episode, anything around her becomes a
weapon if she needs it to be. That always emphasised that it was Buffy who had the power, that it was
in her, not in any thing that was given or could be taken from her.
Introducing Axcalibur diluted that. As soon as it arrived, Slayer power was this big shiny metal created
thing. I realise it made a very clear visual to throw the ax from Slayer to Slayer once they all had the
power, but since there was only one ax to go around it did not in fact make a good visual for what
actually had happened, which was not so much passing around the power as all becoming
embodiments of it. Axcalibur made a bad symbol.
If the thing the First and Caleb were so desperate to obtain was instead the shiny amulet of
everything killing, that would make more sense. It would also make a new kind of sense of how the
First had always been out to get the Vampire with a Soul. If the First unearthed that ax, it still couldn't
be used. That power belonged to the Slayer. For anyone else, it was a shiny bit of metal.
But if the First unearthed the amulet of everything killing... imagine if that power had been unleashed
*on earth*. When it was set loose on the other side of the Hellmouth, it only trashed the ubervamp
dimension and the bit of earth in the fallout zone around the portal. But if Spike had been on *this*
side of the gateway- major, major damage. Bye bye North America. And if they're lucky and someone
mistakes it for a nuke, bye bye world.
The First couldn't control the Slayer. It didn't even try. To make her quit, yes, but not to turn her to its
purposes. But it could, and did, control the Vampire with a Soul. If that vamp was always destined to
use the amulet, then trying to get hold of the amulet makes sense in a way that digging for the ax
never did.
I realise Caleb was trying to take power away from women. But that doesn't change the fact that
owning the ax wouldn't have helped him. Stupid bad guys are always less fun, and do not make very
scary apocalypses. Everything they did to find the ax helped their opposition and only ever could have
helped their opposition. The amulet was a different deal.
I realise Angel turned up with the amulet and it was a whole plot thread in the next season of Angel. It
was not a particularly important thread. It can't have been, they never tied it up. Do we know at the
end of the season why the Senior Partners handed out that amulet, who it was meant for, why they
would have wanted Angel or Spike in that incorporeal form, who it was that brought it back from Hell,
ANY of the questions the amulet raised? No, and that gets rather annoying. So the season would be
stronger without the unresolved stuff. Lindsey could still claim connection to retrieving the amulet, but
the Senior Partners wouldn't be mixed up in it.
Angel could go visit Buffy just to offer her the backup he suddenly gained as CEO of W&H. Buffy could
send him home to build a second front. Then later Angel would be left doubly doubtful- Buffy doesn't
trust him now, so is that why she rejected him then? Much more fun that way.
The empowering of all the Slayers could, and to my mind *should*, have been done without the ax.
Like I said, dumb symbol. The symbol of Slayer power is, was and always should have been the Slayer
herself. Willow has previously accessed the archetypal Slayer power- in Primeval. She didn't have an
ax then, or need one. The share-the-power spell was simply a (much) larger version of that.
The other time Willow used power from a Slayer, it was from a Potential Slayer, Kennedy. In Get it
Done Willow drained power off Kennedy in order to reopen the portal. That was always slightly creepy.
Love shouldn't generally involve violent power drains that greatly resemble what veiny!Willow did to
Rack. But at the end of the season, instead of stealing Kennedy's power, Willow helps her access and
use it. That is the healthy supportive love makes you strong thing, and why it was Kennedy sat there
with Willow while she worked the spell.
Trouble is, presence of Axcalibur again obscures rather than illuminates, as it makes Kennedy into the
courier instead of making her an integral part of the process. If instead of using the ax as her
connection to the Slayer Willow used Kennedy- if her love connection to Kennedy also connected her to
that power- that would have been clearer, and more moving, and much better symbolism.
We would still have had Willow and Kennedy working together, Willow would still have gone all
'goddess' with white hair, but it would have been clear that it was because of love, just as clear as her
dark-hair phase had been because of love. This time the lesbian love would have led her to power,
again, but good power, shared and changing the world in a positive way. I think that is there in the
scene as shown, but the ax gets in the way. Because pointy sharp bit of metal leading to power is so
*very* not the point of the show, and love=power really really is the point.
Season 7 was kind of wonky in places, but to my mind just removing that stupid Ax would have fixed
most of them. It wasn't necessary, and it didn't make things clearer. We would have needed a new
symbol for 'power goes into slayer', but shiny lights have always been handy for that before, and it
would have been clear that it was all everyone at once, in a way using the ax for a symbol really wasnt.
The amulet was sort of
dropped in there at the last moment, especially if you just watch the Buffy story. If instead the amulet
was something that had been fought for and won on the Buffy show then it winning the day becomes
more meaningful. I mean as it stood it was something of a deus ex machina, dropped in for no effort
to create the huge effect. If it had been the amulet that they fought for instead of the ax then it
would, to me at least, be much more emotionally satisfying when it kicks ass at the end.
The Slayers would probably have defeated the Turok Han if all those thousands of Slayers could have
been brought to bear on the ubervamp army, but it would have been an apocalyptic event on a much
larger scale, and an ongoing battle rather than a decisive victory.
The empowerment of the Slayers didn't actually win the victory. It was love, not power, did that.
Amulet represented a different kind of symbol than the ax. Ax is easy to see as a weapon, as the
thing that kills people. With the amulet it is so harmless of itself it is easy to see that what wins is the
fire/passion/love/light/soul, amplified like a magnifying glass. Amulet was a good symbol.
Illuminated. Ax was not. Obscured. Making the amulet central instead of the ax would have been a
better story than the one that actually got told.