Buffy - Season Three

[vervet_monkey]

 So exam season not only saw me re-reading Harry Potter, but also rewatching Buffy. Clearly this cannot be done in a single revision period. Hence I am only just at the end of season 3. This is the least watched of my DVD's (the book still creaks when I open it, rather than nearly falling apart)

But I've loved rewatching it. Partly this may be because I don't know it as well (when I say not as well, I can recite entire scenes, just not, you know, whole episodes!) It's very human, and very much about the human, where seasons 1 and 2 were less so. Rather than focusing on a demon big bad (the Master or Angel, Spike and Dru) we have the Mayor, who although is not entirely human, is more so. He has a life and a job, he can walk in sunlight and interact with humans as a human. We have weekly monsters who aren't really, we have guys playing with magic (Beauty and the Beasts), fairytales that make people act out (Gingerbread), the Watchers Council (Helpless) and kids that don't fit in (Prom). And more than that we have monsters who really take a back seat to our humans (see Earshot, Band Candy).

Season 3 also stops being about our Slayer. Rather than watching the tortured relationship of Buffy and Angel (although, don't get me wrong, it's still there!) we get Willow and Xander growing (albeit with a few mistakes, but human ones, no demons required). Even the slayer and the vampires relationship becomes more normal, more domestic. The monsters and the demons take a back seat to human character development. Culminating quite clearly in the finale of Graduation day. Not only have the Class of 99 recognised Buffy (Prom), but they've joined her in fighting back. The normal human.

 

This season is about growing up.  And it traces that realisation that other people matter, that they make you who you are, and you in turn make them. I think it was Latour (stretching into my mostly forgotten and not enjoyed geography module of this semester) that said everything is defined by it's interaction with everything else. And it's something that is realised on a human level when circumstances change, when who you interact with changes and you have to work out who you are again. Something Joss and Co have depicted here with some perfection.

 

 

I'm guessing my relation to this season also comes somewhat from the fact that I have am about to Graduate, albeit from University. And I'm excited to get going on the next part of my life. I could not do another year of being a student. But it's the thing that the interactions I've had at Uni have changed and shaped me, and those soon will be gone too. To be replaced by others too I'm sure, but right now I'm in the bit between the end of exams and our Grad ball, (Graduation isn't actually until the end of July, but that's more about family, so Grad ball is kind of final as far as actual uni life) where everything is sort of in limbo and about to change, so it all seems like you want to keep hold of it, hence relating to this season.

Comments

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

BtVS S3 is definitely good to watch when you're in an in-between time, when everything is about to change.