Why I need to write Ripper
May. 28th, 2004 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI want to fix the meanings of magic.
On Buffy the Vampire Slayer magic got used to signify a lot of things. Sometimes a spell was just a spell, or a means to an end. Usually it was a heavily loaded metaphor. A lot has been written on this subject, because it led to the biggest message screw up of the whole series.
magic=a way to get things done
magic=power
magic=control
magic=sex, specifically homosexual sex
magic=addiction, specifically drugs
Mostly it was a progression, with the magic=sex metaphor meant to be left behind and the magic=drugs thing to take over. Trouble is both had been present since at least The Dark Age, where they got all mixed up with magic=demons and darkness. The audience could see Willow's growing magic 'addiction' as a drug problem, or they could keep seeing the 'doing spells together' thing as meaning homosexual sex, as it had for a long time already, and see all the subsequent problems as a 'wages of sin' thing. The insane-evil-dead lesbian story that turns up so often its a cliche. It was not intended, but it was right there in the telling, and a lot less veiled than the *logical* character progression that was simply 'power corrupts'. The viewer, and the characters, had it all mixed up and got messages that were not intended by the writers, but were no less powerful for being accidental. Magic=too many things at once.
Season 7 had a good go at repairing the mess. Giles telling Willow "This isn’t a hobby or an addiction. It’s inside you now, this magick. You’re responsible for it." The reappearance of the Wicca group, healing spirits and nurturing life force (important because always there is this mix up between Wicca the religion and witchcraft as portrayed on Buffy, with the spells, and its a bitch having everyone think your religion is evil without your favourite show implying it too). And then Kennedy and the new lesbian love being the solution, the thing that brings Willow back to herself and keeps her grounded. And at the last, big magic from the light side of the force. It is a very worthwhile attempt. But, for me, it doesn't quite address the mess.
magic=power=sex=drugs=demons
the central tangle.
Why I want to use Ripper stories to untangle it is I think it can be plausibly sold that Giles has this same tangled knot of ideas in his own mind. I think part of him believes its all one. And that part needs to be untangled before he can stop being totally miserable about important parts of himself.
When Rupert Giles was 21 he rejected his destiny, his parents, his career, everything picked out for him and set before him. He went off to determine his own path- to find his own power. He used the skills he had been taught but took them further, using magic for pleasure and gain. That led to summoning demons for the rush, a simple and obvious drug metaphor. The particular demon was summoned for orgies, and whilst it inhabited Jenny Calendar's body it tried to play with him sexually. That makes the demon=sex connection.
And the Ethan/Giles subtext is pretty obvious to a lot of viewers. In 'A New Man' scenes between them, reminiscing about magic, cut straight to Willow and Tara, doing spells. When Willow and Tara came out that pretty effectively outed Ethan and Giles, by way of shared subtext. That can be argued against, but for the purposes of the story I'm trying to tell it can certainly be *sold* as being true.
magic=power=demons=drugs=sex
and maybe Giles believes and feels that to be necessarily so. Maybe not in his conscious mind, but in his subconscious things twisted so it changed his whole life.
The differences between Ripper, the way he lived his life in that one rebellious time, and Rupert Giles, tweed clad and stuttering, are rather extreme. We have an idea how he got from one to the other- that one traumatic experience with Eyghon. He stopped summoning demons, which seems pretty sensible since demons are usually bad things (although there are some not bad bad things, they dont turn up as often on BtVS as on AtS). He also stopped using magic. To the point where he lied about having ever used magic before (in 'The Witch', when he said a casting was his first. His first in a quarter century perhaps, or the first from that book, but not his first magic), which suggests to me he was ashamed or scared of his past. When it turns up again in the form of Ethan Rayne he sends Willow away, and tries to get Buffy to stay out his 'private' business later with Eyghon. Shame and fear and a more intense fear of his mistakes tainting more lives than of he himself being killed.
It is a stretch but I think it can be suggested that he got sex tangled up with the 'leads to scary badness' idea. Actually when phrased like that its pretty much Buffyverse canon, so less of a stretch. But I mean that Ripper is confident and sexual, claiming Joyce by right, whereas Giles stutters to try and ask out a chair when working his way up to talking to Jenny. And he and Jenny never actually got around to the sex part. With Olivia he was more comfortable, but it may well be significant that Olivia calls him Ripper and knew him back when he was using the line that he had been one of the founder members of Pink Floyd. I cant see that line being terribly useful in later decades. It seems likely that Olivia is someone he knew from before Eyghon. She also is not hesitant about taking what she wants, so its easy to imagine her making all the moves and Giles' hesitancy not being a big factor.
Rejecting demons, rejecting magic, rejecting sex. The only drug we've seen him use as Giles is alcohol, which our society puts in a different category. Liquid courage, use it to numb the pain and get through the day. It is an attitude I hate but people think of alcohol is not a drug. So, Giles rejects drugs.
He also rejects power.
One thing that makes Buffy different, and successful, is her degree of autonomy. Unlike Kendra or Riley she was never about following orders. But this has as much to do with Giles as it does with Buffy. If Giles were a different kind of man, if he insisted on being in charge with Buffy, she would have had to be a different kind of Slayer. But he is more comfortable when Buffy takes charge. He is entirely happy to see her 'graduate', and he does not react to her rejection of the council by trying to put himself in charge of her. He does not like being in power.
One thing he never rejects though is control, specifically self control. It leaves him wound tighter than a spring and so self contained the others think he might be a ghost but he keeps himself controlled. Unless completely broken, like when Jenny died. But everyone, himself I'm sure included, sees what he did then as really bloody stupid. The thing is he does not mix up magic and self control, unlike Willow who has tried to magic her feelings away more than once. So keeping control does not contradict the whole rejection of the magic tangle idea.
(magic=power=demons=drugs=sex)= things that Giles rejects
I think it is pretty obvious that is a teensy bit unhealthy.
Over the course of the 7 seasons Giles changed quite a lot. He reintegrated some of the parts that I think he turned his back on after Ripper times. But I do not think he ever got comfortable with those parts. I think he sees them as bad but sometimes necessary.
I want to take that Giles, hurting because he wants to reject these huge parts of him, and take him through a journey that leads to him untangled and with all his parts back together as a happy and functioning whole. I think it will take years. But it can be done. And I have some definite ideas as to how to do it.
On Buffy the Vampire Slayer magic got used to signify a lot of things. Sometimes a spell was just a spell, or a means to an end. Usually it was a heavily loaded metaphor. A lot has been written on this subject, because it led to the biggest message screw up of the whole series.
magic=a way to get things done
magic=power
magic=control
magic=sex, specifically homosexual sex
magic=addiction, specifically drugs
Mostly it was a progression, with the magic=sex metaphor meant to be left behind and the magic=drugs thing to take over. Trouble is both had been present since at least The Dark Age, where they got all mixed up with magic=demons and darkness. The audience could see Willow's growing magic 'addiction' as a drug problem, or they could keep seeing the 'doing spells together' thing as meaning homosexual sex, as it had for a long time already, and see all the subsequent problems as a 'wages of sin' thing. The insane-evil-dead lesbian story that turns up so often its a cliche. It was not intended, but it was right there in the telling, and a lot less veiled than the *logical* character progression that was simply 'power corrupts'. The viewer, and the characters, had it all mixed up and got messages that were not intended by the writers, but were no less powerful for being accidental. Magic=too many things at once.
Season 7 had a good go at repairing the mess. Giles telling Willow "This isn’t a hobby or an addiction. It’s inside you now, this magick. You’re responsible for it." The reappearance of the Wicca group, healing spirits and nurturing life force (important because always there is this mix up between Wicca the religion and witchcraft as portrayed on Buffy, with the spells, and its a bitch having everyone think your religion is evil without your favourite show implying it too). And then Kennedy and the new lesbian love being the solution, the thing that brings Willow back to herself and keeps her grounded. And at the last, big magic from the light side of the force. It is a very worthwhile attempt. But, for me, it doesn't quite address the mess.
magic=power=sex=drugs=demons
the central tangle.
Why I want to use Ripper stories to untangle it is I think it can be plausibly sold that Giles has this same tangled knot of ideas in his own mind. I think part of him believes its all one. And that part needs to be untangled before he can stop being totally miserable about important parts of himself.
When Rupert Giles was 21 he rejected his destiny, his parents, his career, everything picked out for him and set before him. He went off to determine his own path- to find his own power. He used the skills he had been taught but took them further, using magic for pleasure and gain. That led to summoning demons for the rush, a simple and obvious drug metaphor. The particular demon was summoned for orgies, and whilst it inhabited Jenny Calendar's body it tried to play with him sexually. That makes the demon=sex connection.
And the Ethan/Giles subtext is pretty obvious to a lot of viewers. In 'A New Man' scenes between them, reminiscing about magic, cut straight to Willow and Tara, doing spells. When Willow and Tara came out that pretty effectively outed Ethan and Giles, by way of shared subtext. That can be argued against, but for the purposes of the story I'm trying to tell it can certainly be *sold* as being true.
magic=power=demons=drugs=sex
and maybe Giles believes and feels that to be necessarily so. Maybe not in his conscious mind, but in his subconscious things twisted so it changed his whole life.
The differences between Ripper, the way he lived his life in that one rebellious time, and Rupert Giles, tweed clad and stuttering, are rather extreme. We have an idea how he got from one to the other- that one traumatic experience with Eyghon. He stopped summoning demons, which seems pretty sensible since demons are usually bad things (although there are some not bad bad things, they dont turn up as often on BtVS as on AtS). He also stopped using magic. To the point where he lied about having ever used magic before (in 'The Witch', when he said a casting was his first. His first in a quarter century perhaps, or the first from that book, but not his first magic), which suggests to me he was ashamed or scared of his past. When it turns up again in the form of Ethan Rayne he sends Willow away, and tries to get Buffy to stay out his 'private' business later with Eyghon. Shame and fear and a more intense fear of his mistakes tainting more lives than of he himself being killed.
It is a stretch but I think it can be suggested that he got sex tangled up with the 'leads to scary badness' idea. Actually when phrased like that its pretty much Buffyverse canon, so less of a stretch. But I mean that Ripper is confident and sexual, claiming Joyce by right, whereas Giles stutters to try and ask out a chair when working his way up to talking to Jenny. And he and Jenny never actually got around to the sex part. With Olivia he was more comfortable, but it may well be significant that Olivia calls him Ripper and knew him back when he was using the line that he had been one of the founder members of Pink Floyd. I cant see that line being terribly useful in later decades. It seems likely that Olivia is someone he knew from before Eyghon. She also is not hesitant about taking what she wants, so its easy to imagine her making all the moves and Giles' hesitancy not being a big factor.
Rejecting demons, rejecting magic, rejecting sex. The only drug we've seen him use as Giles is alcohol, which our society puts in a different category. Liquid courage, use it to numb the pain and get through the day. It is an attitude I hate but people think of alcohol is not a drug. So, Giles rejects drugs.
He also rejects power.
One thing that makes Buffy different, and successful, is her degree of autonomy. Unlike Kendra or Riley she was never about following orders. But this has as much to do with Giles as it does with Buffy. If Giles were a different kind of man, if he insisted on being in charge with Buffy, she would have had to be a different kind of Slayer. But he is more comfortable when Buffy takes charge. He is entirely happy to see her 'graduate', and he does not react to her rejection of the council by trying to put himself in charge of her. He does not like being in power.
One thing he never rejects though is control, specifically self control. It leaves him wound tighter than a spring and so self contained the others think he might be a ghost but he keeps himself controlled. Unless completely broken, like when Jenny died. But everyone, himself I'm sure included, sees what he did then as really bloody stupid. The thing is he does not mix up magic and self control, unlike Willow who has tried to magic her feelings away more than once. So keeping control does not contradict the whole rejection of the magic tangle idea.
(magic=power=demons=drugs=sex)= things that Giles rejects
I think it is pretty obvious that is a teensy bit unhealthy.
Over the course of the 7 seasons Giles changed quite a lot. He reintegrated some of the parts that I think he turned his back on after Ripper times. But I do not think he ever got comfortable with those parts. I think he sees them as bad but sometimes necessary.
I want to take that Giles, hurting because he wants to reject these huge parts of him, and take him through a journey that leads to him untangled and with all his parts back together as a happy and functioning whole. I think it will take years. But it can be done. And I have some definite ideas as to how to do it.