Since I’ve discussed Buffy recently I thought I would post an entry on Willow’s “turn to the dark-side.” Consider this scene after Willow goes into a homicidal frenzy of revenge:
BUFFY: (sighing) We need to find Willow.
XANDER: Yeah, she’s off the wagon big-time. Warren’s a dead man if she finds him.
DAWN: (bitterly) Good.
BUFFY: Dawn, don’t say that.
DAWN: Why not? (the others looking at her) I’d do it myself if I could.
BUFFY: Because you don’t really feel that way.
DAWN: Yes I do. And you should too. He killed Tara, and he nearly killed you. He needs to pay.
XANDER: Out of the mouths of babes.
BUFFY: Xander.
XANDER: I’m just saying he’s … he’s just as bad as any vampire you’ve sent to dustville.
BUFFY: Being a Slayer doesn’t give me a license to kill. Warren’s human.
DAWN: (scoffs) So?
BUFFY: So the human world has its own rules for dealing with people like him.
XANDER: Yeah, we all know how well those rules work.
BUFFY: Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. We can’t control the universe. If we were supposed to … then the magic wouldn’t change Willow the way it does. And … we’d be able to bring Tara back.
DAWN: (very quietly) And Mom.
BUFFY: There are limits to what we can do. There should be. Willow doesn’t want to believe that. And now she’s messing with forces that want to hurt her. All of us. [SOURCE]
I think this pretty much deconstructs virtually all of the positive value of Willow’s magical abilities going back to the earliest days.
What was jarring was the way the show came up with a “good magic” in season 7 that was all new-age, earth-mother, weirdness. In fact, it was exactly the sort of ethos that was openly mocked in earlier seasons. Oh well.
As a family, we’ve enjoyed the first three seasons of Buffy.
But now that we’re half-way thru season 4, we’re probably going to stop. Willow’s flirting with lesbianism is no family entertainment.
pax,
Dale
That’s really the problem with TV now. I think my kids can read about Harry Potter snogging (and I suppose see it when the movie comes out) and know better than to accept the behavior as right. But if shows are going to surprise you with soft porn lesbianism, then forget it.
BTW, Dale, you could transition to the first season of Angel without too much problems. It picks up where Season 3 of Buffy leaves off. (Check it out for yourself first. I don’t let my kids watch any of it yet).
The Boar’s Head Tavern recently interviewed one of the writers for Buffy’s first few seasons – you should check it out – he is very interesting and a Christian.
Sorry, that’s St. Anne’s Public HOuse. I can’t keep all these non-bar bars straight.