There is no doubt that when it comes to the social ethics of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption Buffy preaches the gospel that mercy is necessary, that forgiveness is divine, well as divine as humans can get, and that redemption is possible. There is also no doubt that in Buffy humans are frail and fallible and that they are often in need of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption. And there is no doubt that because of human frailty humans are not always saints, are often sinners, and that they need redemption for their various “sins” again and again. Episodes of Buffy like the superb “I Only Have Eyes for You” in season two, the excellent “Amends" in season three, the superb “Something Blue in season four, the magnificent “There’s No Place like Home in season five, virtually every episode in season six, and Buffy’s sometimes abuse of power in several episodes in season seven make this abundantly clear. All of the protagonist-heroes of Buffy, in fact, including Buffy, Angel (who was described by one Buffy writer as one drink away from becoming Angelus, his evil double again), Willow, Xander, Giles, Faith, Anya, and Spike are in need of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption at some point or other in the series, often at several points in the series again and again.
It is also abundantly clear that in Buffy vengeance, the negation of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption, is not divine, metaphorically divine, in Buffy. The vengeance is a thing curse that the gypsy’s put on Angel because he has killed one of the beloved females of their tribe has disastrous consequences for everyone including the gypsy’s Jenny Calendar, Jana of the Kalderash people, and her Uncle Enyos to such an extent that it essentially karma that comes back to bite then in the proverbial arse. Vengeance, the metaphorically eye for an eye, Buffy tells us, results not in justice but in violence not only against the perpetrators of violence but also against those who seek vengeance upon the perpetrator of the initial act of violence and immorality. Buffy is not, in other words, your Tanakh or your Christians reinterpreting the Christian New Testament as the Tanakh kind of television show. Vengeance in Buffy makes those seeking vengeance blind to its violent consequences.
Despite this condemnation of vindictiveness, of the lack of forgiveness, and of vengeance in Buffy reactors like Nick (aka,Thor) Reacts, SofeReacts, the LexieCrowd, After Show Reacts, EvilQK, and all but one of The Normies, come to praise vengeance when it comes to the misogynous Warren Mears in “Villains". Warren, as those who have watched Buffy know, is one of the Trio of season six, one-third of the Troika of Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew, who accidentally kills Willow’s girlfriend Tara while trying to kill Buffy. As Willow gone dark (an iteration of VampWillow in season three) takes her revenge on Warren, seeks vengeance against Warren, they cheer Willow on (and look at those facial expressions as they do) urging her to murder Warren and revel in her torture of Warren (and the bullet Willow magically and slowly uses to rip apart his insides as she tortures him before murdering him) and her murder of him (though to be fair some are reflexive about the murder and disturbed when Willow skins Warren alive). The quality of these reactors to Warren is not, in other words, mercy. It is not forgiveness. It is not hoping for Warren’s possible future redemption (they don’t believe his apology and realisation he needs redemption), it is vengeance. It is an eye for an eye, a death for a death vengeance. Nick goes so far as to compare, in his reaction to the last episode of season six, Warren’s execution to the killing of a cockroach recalling in th process, at least for some of us, Nazi metaphors for Jews. Vengeance is vicariously ours these reactors seem to say. This is somewhat paradoxical given that while they seek vengeance against Warren they have repeatedly hoped for the redemption of others in the Buffyverse such as Faith and Spike (who they eventually forgive after his attempted rape of Buffy) not to mention the four original Scoobies. But then they liked if not loved those characters while they hated Warren.
Note: Three English reactors, Liam Duke, Liam Catterson, and Dakara are disturbed by Willow’s torture and murder of Warren and a bit more reflexive about the murder than the American reactors. Additionally, the two Liam's make the connection between DarkWillow and VampWillow.
NoteL Another English reactor, Dakara, expressed her discontent with season six of Buffy with its darker arcs and DarkWillow character arc in her reaction video to “Villains". Many at the time of broadcast felt similarly. Of course, growing up—that which Joss Whedon, Buffy’s creator, and who wasn’t as involved with season six as with previous seasons, was primarily about before the season began—is not all sugar and spice and everything nice, which is what Buffy is trying to depict in season six. Unfortunately, many fan boys and girls don’t want their beloved characters to suffer or change that much. They like repetition (so does Hollywood). I think this is at least one of the reasons some were discomfited by season six and season four of Buffy.
No comments:
Post a Comment