Rules of Engagement: Violence and Hyperreality in the Buffyverse

[lostboy_lj]

rebcake recently posted a poll regarding the onset of Buffy and Spike's sexual relationship in the BtVS episode "Smashed."  I answered "neither" and began to post a comment to explain, but it started to get long-ish, so I thought I'd just do a long-ish blog post instead.  What I wrote turned out to be somewhat off-topic in terms of her poll, and more

Comments

[eilowyn]

[lostboy_lj]

Thanks, eilowyn. Yes, of course you can link to it. I'd be honored. :)

[abelina]

I can't really add anything to that except to say, "yes, what you said."

[lostboy_lj]

Thanks. :)

[aycheb]

For instance, what they are doing in the abandoned house scene isn't important -- physical combat is part of their nature. It comes as naturally to them as taking in air, and there's nothing unusual about it within the violent hyperreality of Sunnydale. What is important in this scene is what they're saying:
I agree that the violence is illustrative not literal. It expresses underlying emotions in the same way a dance sequence might in a musical. But for many people this particular dance evokes something more like “The Red Shoes” than “Cheek to Cheek” more George and Martha than Han and Leia. Verbally Spike gets the first blow in with a vicious left hook of “you came back wrong” and that more than political correctness is why I think people remember it as him beating her not the other way round. Verbally, he has her on the ropes from the beginning. Ever the game-changer Buffy mutates the rules when she kisses him but it’s a Samson move, she still loses. This final scene is even more unsettling in context. Spike *is* creepy in

[lostboy_lj]

But for many people this particular dance evokes something more like “The Red Shoes” than “Cheek to Cheek” more George and Martha than Han and Leia.

Sure, I can see a little of those too. The point is that that we have two dance partners, one of whom is willing to dance, and one of whom who wants to, but won't admit it.

Verbally, he has her on the ropes from the beginning. Ever the game-changer Buffy mutates the rules when she kisses him but it’s a Samson move, she still loses.

I couldn't disagree more. Buffy doesn't "lose" anything, because the moment she kisses him, it is ceases to be a fight. It's not just what happens textually that tells us this. When she kisses him, there is a dramatic shift in the score, the cut-in shot of the wall breaking, the looks on the actors' faces as the realize they both need this. The change in the entire mise-en-scene tells us that they have crossed the rubicon, and that the battle is over... for now. Meanwhile, the war has just begun.

This final scene is even more unsettling in context.

[aycheb]

The point is that that we have two dance partners, one of whom is willing to dance, and one of whom who wants to, but won't admit it.
That's Spike's position but The Red Shoes is a solo not a duet. We have two dancers but they're in two different shows. or two singers singing different songs (as happens at the end of OMWF).
Buffy doesn't "lose" anything, because the moment she kisses him, it is ceases to be a fight.
The music changes but the house continues to fall down around them. It becomes more destructive not less. Not so much crossing the Rubicon as diving in. Drowning not waving.

And yet, their first kiss outside the Bronze in "OMWF" happened when Buffy follows Spike out the door, and the next one happens when Buffy follows a retreating Spike inside the club at the end of "Tabula Rasa." Before the events of "Smashed" Buffy has twice followed him when he was leaving her personal space.Buffy having her fair share of creepy doesn't mean Spike's isn't. He lashes out at her too but with him it's less of a pattern. The inability to

(longish - so, part one)

[lostboy_lj]

We have two dancers but they're in two different shows. or two singers singing different songs (as happens at the end of OMWF).But the story of "OMWF" doesn't take place inside a vacuum, any more than "Smashed" does. They may be singing different songs at first, but the lyrics converge at the end ("I just want to feel/ You can make me feel"). They both yearn for feeling, because feeling is evidence of life. Buffy feels dead inside, and yearns to be fully alive ("I want the fire back"), with all the fraility that goes along with it

[elisi]

[lostboy_lj]

Thanks!

[readerjane]

***cheers, stomps***

Well, well said.

I read this to my daughter (she's 19). We both love the way BtVS can be both goofy fun and thought-provoking life stuff at the same time.

[lostboy_lj]

Aw, thanks Jane.

I think it's so great that the next generation is getting into the show (and what I see some of the dreck that passes for primetime TV these days, it's no wonder why).

I think the truly great films and shows never really stop being popular. They are constantly rediscovered. Like, who will want to rewatch last season of "American Idol" in ten years?

Heck, who want to rewatch it now? ;)