Buffy has home, family, friends whereas Faith has nothing, and yet it's Buffy we're supposed to side with. I find that a bit hard to stomach.
You hit on one of my big ambivalences about how to understand the show. Yes, it seems we are to side with Buffy. Yet at the same time, the show observes details that make that seem too easy. Buffy leads with sibling rivalry issues and wants Faith pushed to the side. Buffy's real ire at Faith is only aroused when she suspects Faith is encroaching on Angel. And Buffy makes the deliberate choice to try to kill Faith. None of this presents her as shiny white in contrast to Faith's pitch black. Rather, it looks like a portrait of how a family dynamic conspires to create a black sheep. And then in AtS 1, Buffy really is presented as petty and vindictive -- which underscores that the foundation of Buffy/Faith really is this sibling rivalry thing. "Faith wins again." It's an ugly element to Buffy's personality, and we only know about it because the writers showed it to us. So are we really supposed to side with Buffy? Did they not realize they'd presented a more complicated dynamic? Or are they playing off our instinct to side with the 'hero' by giving us a text where if we pay attention we realize that it's not so simple as it seems? I tend to think its the latter. And then my real frustration is with the sections of fandom which just totally miss the undercurrents and stick with the surface "hero is always right" mentality that the show means to subtly undermine.
BTW, notice that in this last issue, we are again reminded that for Buffy its the sibling rivalry thing that is paramount. She's not mad at Giles for going behind her back. She's mad that it's *HER*.
Re your other post today: congrats on the new bed! And a new mattress next year? Life is good.
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You hit on one of my big ambivalences about how to understand the show. Yes, it seems we are to side with Buffy. Yet at the same time, the show observes details that make that seem too easy. Buffy leads with sibling rivalry issues and wants Faith pushed to the side. Buffy's real ire at Faith is only aroused when she suspects Faith is encroaching on Angel. And Buffy makes the deliberate choice to try to kill Faith. None of this presents her as shiny white in contrast to Faith's pitch black. Rather, it looks like a portrait of how a family dynamic conspires to create a black sheep. And then in AtS 1, Buffy really is presented as petty and vindictive -- which underscores that the foundation of Buffy/Faith really is this sibling rivalry thing. "Faith wins again." It's an ugly element to Buffy's personality, and we only know about it because the writers showed it to us. So are we really supposed to side with Buffy? Did they not realize they'd presented a more complicated dynamic? Or are they playing off our instinct to side with the 'hero' by giving us a text where if we pay attention we realize that it's not so simple as it seems? I tend to think its the latter. And then my real frustration is with the sections of fandom which just totally miss the undercurrents and stick with the surface "hero is always right" mentality that the show means to subtly undermine.
BTW, notice that in this last issue, we are again reminded that for Buffy its the sibling rivalry thing that is paramount. She's not mad at Giles for going behind her back. She's mad that it's *HER*.
Re your other post today: congrats on the new bed! And a new mattress next year? Life is good.