Did Buffy Give Willow a Ring?

[midwesternwatcher]

I just finished rewatching "Who Are You?" (season 4, episode 16), where Faith and Buffy have switched bodies. Tara notices something is wrong about the person who seems to be Buffy, and wishes to do a spell to locate Buffy's real essence. She asks Willow, "Do you have something of Buffy's?" Willow thinks for a second, then says, "This ring," indicating a ring she (Willow) is wearing on the third finger of her right hand.

I don't remember Buffy giving Willow a ring. Can anybody tell me when this happens? Or should I assume it happened sometime "off camera"?

[kaan]

I don't think it happened on-screen, or was meant to be a big deal. I always assumed it was just meant to be like something best friends would randomly share. Girls do share jewelry with each other, don't they?

[The Girl In Question]

^^Yes, we do! At least I do...

[Darth Rosie]

Apr 19, 2010 21:39:55 GMT -5 The Girl In Question said:

^^Yes, we do! At least I do...

I never did

The only ring I ever exchanged was with my girlfriend, and it's an engagement ring

And this is all the jewellery I have - I'm that butch

[Inappropriate Starches]

Yeah I got the impression it was just an easy thing to put in the story so that willow would have something of buffy's. which is also what tara says so I didn't get the impression that she gave her a ring, but just that she was borrowing it.

[elenasaur]

I think if it were actually a big deal, or even a medium-sized deal there probably would have been mention of it.

As it is, Buffy and Willow shared a dorm room. Despite Buffy's original soulless roommate, I think she would be pretty open to letting Willow borrow her stuff. Or maybe it was some kind of friendship ring. I had a million of those in the early 2000s, of course I was also 8..

[tkts]

I figured it was Buffy's and Willow had borrowed it. They're best friends and they're roommates ... some accessory-borrowing is bound to happen.

Plus, if Buffy had given it to her, wouldn't it cease to be something of Buffy's? The necklace Xander gave Cordelia in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" counted as something of Cordelia's for the purpose of Amy's spell.

[midwesternwatcher]

Interesting. It's a judgment call, how much we should think about these pre-scientific notions that undergird the Buffyverse (and a lot of other things).

The use of Buffy's ring comes from the notion of contagious magic, described in Wikipedia (based on Levy-Strauss). The idea seems to be that if Buffy had had "a lot to do with" that ring, then it would remain connected to her, and a connection to her could be made through it, even after she was physically separated from it.

The locket that Xander gave Cordelia, as I remember, was something he bought for her. It was never a thing of his, never important to him except as a thing to give to Cordelia. Therefore it would be much more connected to Cordelia than to him, and might not work for someone who wanted to do a spell on Xander.

The crucial question is Buffy's history with that ring, which apparently we don't know. Apparently it was connected to her deeply enough that she could be "reached" through it.

Oh, here's the quote from Wikipedia:

"Another primary type of magical thinking includes the principle of contagion. This principle suggests that once two objects come into contact with each other, they will continue to affect each other even after the contact between them has been broken. One example that Tambiah gives is related to adoption. Among some American Indians, for example, when a child is adopted his or her adoptive mother will pull the child through some of her clothes, symbolically representing the birth process and thereby associating the child with herself.[51] Therefore, the child emotionally becomes hers even though their relationship is not biological. As Claude Lévi-Strauss would put it: the birth “would consist, therefore, in making explicit a situation originally existing on the emotional level and in rendering acceptable to the mind pains which the body refuses to tolerate…the woman believes in the myth and belongs to a society which believes in it.”

[CourtneyDax]

That was a really cool analysis WesternWatcher! Thank you for posting it. *karma'd*

[Skytteflickan88]

Willow mentioned in Where the wild things(when she and Riley has magic-y sex) are that she borrowed a top or something from Buffy without asking and spilled something on it. I wouldn't be surprised if she did that with rings too. Or she asked. I don't think it was a gift, because then it would just be from Buffy, not Buffy's. That's seem like the proper English was to say it anyway. Maybe Tara said wrong?

The love spell in BBB, why didn't it work properly? I can't remember if it was mentioned. Maybe it was because the locket wasn't Cordy's anymore, since Xander had taken it back, aming it his? Or maybe her love for him made her immune?

[kaan]

Apr 23, 2010 14:05:46 GMT -5 Skytteflickan88 said:

The love spell in BBB, why didn't it work properly? I can't remember if it was mentioned. Maybe it was because the locket wasn't Cordy's anymore, since Xander had taken it back, aming it his? Or maybe her love for him made her immune?

It was never explained, except Amy saying she was still learning about witchcraft.

[buffyfan21]

I've never thought anything of Willow having a ring of Buffy's. I just assume it was something among friends. They probably borrow each others things all the time. I don't think we were ever intended to read much into it. I think it was merely a plot device.

Apr 23, 2010 14:05:46 GMT -5 Skytteflickan88 said:

The love spell in BBB, why didn't it work properly? I can't remember if it was mentioned. Maybe it was because the locket wasn't Cordy's anymore, since Xander had taken it back, aming it his? Or maybe her love for him made her immune?

Yeah. That's what I always assumed botched the spell. Xander took the locket back so technically it wasn't her's anymore. Plus, as you said, she already loved Xander so the spell wasn't effective on her. I think it was a combination of these two factors.

[tkts]

Apr 23, 2010 18:15:47 GMT -5 kaan said:

Apr 23, 2010 14:05:46 GMT -5 Skytteflickan88 said:

The love spell in BBB, why didn't it work properly? I can't remember if it was mentioned. Maybe it was because the locket wasn't Cordy's anymore, since Xander had taken it back, aming it his? Or maybe her love for him made her immune?

It was never explained, except Amy saying she was still learning about witchcraft.

Yeah, I think that's probably "just one of those things." Like how in "Something Blue," the stuff Willow wants to will to be true doesn't come true, but random stuff she says starts to come true, as long as it's something that'd be funny.

[Just Willow]

Yup, I think it was just like a casual thing. Us girls share clothes adn jewlery a lot, especially if we're living together, lol.

[AngelFaith]

Apr 23, 2010 18:15:47 GMT -5 kaan said:

It was never explained, except Amy saying she was still learning about witchcraft.

Giles says that Cordelia's locket actually worked as protection against the spell, which is why she wasn't affected.

[midwesternwatcher]

I just rewatched "Where the Wild Things Are," reminded of a minor moment. Willow takes advantage of a moment when Buffy is distracted to tell her that she (Willow) was not the one who spilled something purple on Buffy's peasant top, which she (Willow) would never borrow without asking.