This issue seems to have polarised opinion, with some people loving it and others being really, really hostile. I enjoyed it on its own merits as a classic Gothic horror story, but I don't think it had much to do with the Buffyverse or Season 8.
I wonder if the demon is supposed to work as a social commentary on the demographic situation in Europe where many places have negative natality rate
The other analogy that came to mind is the way the older generation send their children away to fight and die in wars in the name of protecting (their own) way of life. It can be seen as a metaphor for the Slayers pre-empowerment spell. The folk of Hanselstadt convinced themselves that they were doing the right thing, making sacrifices for the common good. You could also draw the analogy with what their parents did in the Germany of the 1930s, with the Watcher Fillworthe in the role of a certain other well-known leader of that period. (If, that is, you assume that the plan to deliberately feed children to the demon to protect the adults of the town was his idea, and they went along with it.)
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I wonder if the demon is supposed to work as a social commentary on the demographic situation in Europe where many places have negative natality rate
The other analogy that came to mind is the way the older generation send their children away to fight and die in wars in the name of protecting (their own) way of life. It can be seen as a metaphor for the Slayers pre-empowerment spell. The folk of Hanselstadt convinced themselves that they were doing the right thing, making sacrifices for the common good. You could also draw the analogy with what their parents did in the Germany of the 1930s, with the Watcher Fillworthe in the role of a certain other well-known leader of that period. (If, that is, you assume that the plan to deliberately feed children to the demon to protect the adults of the town was his idea, and they went along with it.)