Notes on Buffy 3.05 Homecoming

[2maggie2]

Standard disclaimer: I'll often speak of foreshadowing, but that doesn't mean I'm at all committing to the idea that there was some fixed design from the word go -- it's a short hand for talking about the resonances that end up in the text as it unspools.

Standard spoiler warning: The notes are written for folks who have seen all of BtVS and AtS.

Comments

[vamp_mogs]

I think one of the reasons Xander/Willow kiss is because they’re kind of on their own again. Ever since Buffy ran away you guys have done a great job noting how she’s been slightly estranged from her friends. Here, Xander/Willow are trying on formal clothes without her and just like in When She Was Bad, when they nearly kissed in the cemetery, when Buffy’s not around both of them grow closer. Hyena!Xander even says this in The Pack when he tries to seduce Willow by pointing out how Buffy’s inclusion into the group stopped them from growing closer, which actually seems kinda inevitable. In The Wish we’ll also see that they eventually hooked up should Buffy not have come to Sunnydale. Obviously it’s a bit more complicated now that they both have partners but I think Buffy’s distance from them both is what causes them to regress slightly

[2maggie2]

Wow, what a great set of insights! Your read on X/W makes total sense and it's a *great* catch about what happens between them in the world where Buffy never shows up

[vamp_mogs]

I also love your point on how different the slayers really are from others. So many people want to downplay that. I really think this is why Buffy has to do her thing with the vampires. It doesn't mean she'll land there, or that she has to. But she's not just going to be Josephine Normal and settle down with a nice human boy anytime soon.Honestly, if Joss came to me and said "I'm going to write an episode of BtVS and I want you to tell me what it will be about" I'd suggest a whole ep dedicated solely to exploring the mental scarring slayers are left with. We get a bit of it in the series but I think fans totally underestimate just how traumatic a Slayer's life must be for a teenage girl. He could easily do it (he can get inside a character's head like nobody else) and I really wish they had. I still want to write a fic exploring it, actually

[2maggie2]

I don't see how people can miss that scarring. At the beginning of Intervention Buffy explicitly tells Giles what's happening to her. In fact, I pretty much think it's the subtext of Buffy's whole story. It's subtle, but I think most of the important things about the story are subtle. (Like you noticing the automatic hit response).

[gabrielleabelle]

I definitely think Buffy's deviousness in this episode is an allusion to her former, pre-Slayer life as "Spordelia". She regresses, so to speak. It's not so much her attempting to be "special" in the normal world, but her going back to what's familiar outside of the monsters and demons. Obviously, that happens to include running for pretentious and self-indulgent titles, but that's the point. Buffy, without the Slaying, would be very Cordelia-like, and we see in this episode that she does become more Cordelia-like with her manipulations and shallow overtures of friendship to get what she wants

[local_max]

Wait--Buffy becomes a Spike/Cordelia relationship?!?!?! (Yes, I know the line was from Helpless...which, interestingly, is at a place where Buffy knows she doesn't want to return to that.)

On the other hand, it's also telling that, in trying to find something to affirm her place in the non-demon world, Buffy pretty much becomes a horrible, shallow person.

Yep. And I mean, I think Buffy without powers could be a good person, too, but she's never had practice at being a good-person-without-powers. We do see that in Helpless...but in that case, she's not rejecting her powers, and wants them back. It's all pretty interesting.

[gabrielleabelle]

Wait--Buffy becomes a Spike/Cordelia relationship?!?!?!

I'm trying to wrangle this into a segue into a Wordy reference, but, alas, I got nothing.

[blackfrancine]

Re: Buffy's attempt being a cynical grab for exceptional normalism--I don't exactly disagree. It is exceptional normalism that she's looking for--but I don't think that's really because Buffy's blinded by her privilege as a pretty, social girl--though there is a little bit of that. But more importantly--Buffy doesn't actually want to be Homecoming Queen. She does indeed make a bunch of phony baloney attempts to schmooze students--and, yes, the title of Homecoming Queen is ultimately a meaningless way of measuring her impact in the "real world" or her daytime life. I don't believe for a second that she doesn't know that

[norwie2010]

I think you are way too mellow on the scoobies. I mean, i do cut them a serious amount of slack for being messed up teenagers - but they do deny Buffy the things they ask for themselves. Giles, Willow, Xander are lonely loosers, themselves. They know the feeling of being left out. Yet, Buffy choose them, gave them what they crave(d). And they cannot be arsed to take her plea to be included seriously?!

Right, but they don't actually have all the facts.

While i generally agree with You, that communication of wants and needs is important and something the scoobies are not very good at (including Buffy here) - they have all the facts they're ever going to get. Of course, they aren't Buffy, they're not in her shoes - but they're as near to her as anyone could be (apart from Angel). They know Buffy doesn't want to die (Prophecy Girl). In this episode, Buffy explicitly that she wants recognition (of being alive, existing at all). They've been with her in her bouts of normalcy, boy troubles, dancing nights, school troubles

[norwie2010]

Shit. There goes all my careful layout... Sucks to be me, without a paid account.