Culture analysis about Buffy

[etca]

Men absolut, Caroline/ skytteflickan88 .

Trevligare kultur att observera har jag svårt att tänka mig. Egentligen har jag satt stop för fler intervjuer med rädsla för att det ska bli för oöverskådligt. Men en till intervju med en trevlig buffy-människa kan ju inte skada

Som jag nämnt till de andra så kommer jag att återkomma med lite uppföljningsfrågor på era svar...

[Skytteflickan88]

Jag hade redan skrivit klart när jag upptäckte att du inte verkade vilja ha en till intervju, men jag bestämde mig för att lägga upp den ändå.

I'm bad to the bones...

[etca]

Det fungerade finfint. Tack så mycket för att du delade med dig!

[Just Willow]

okay, is it just me, or are we talking in a different language now?

[Mathieu]

I was wondering what was going on :-p

I like the small circles above the a's.

[sla]

LOL
Cool, but creepy...I'm sure they are talking about us.

[Mathieu]

Swedish doesn't sound or look like anything I know. They could be saying anything...

[Mathieu]

I made two very good friends abroad thanks to BTVS. One lives in Switzerland and the other lives in Spain. The Buffyverse brings us all together. Yay, it's almost Care-a-Lot here!

[etca]

Apr 21, 2009 19:16:52 GMT -5 Mathieu said:

I was wondering what was going on :-p

I like the small circles above the a's.

Sorry! Didn´t mean to create bizarro world here. But since both me and sky are from sweden it was just a little easier to take it in swedish.

The a with the circle, å, is pronounced ouuh. We have three extra letters in our alphabet. Instead of the alphabet endning with z, it ends with åäö.

[Skytteflickan88]

Yeah, we got more things to say, so we need extra letters.

*trying to get up on a high horse put falls of on the other side*

[etca]

Apr 19, 2009 12:48:52 GMT -5 hitnrun017 said:

7. How would you describe the tv- series Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Take away everything supernatural, and it's just life, growing up.


10. What does the tv-series Buffy the Vampire Slayer mean to you?
Along with Angel, pretty much everything. I like to think of it as my drug of choice or security blanket. It's something that will always be there whenever I need it. I always have phases of things I like, usually they last a year at most, but the Buffyverse is something I've loved for eight years, and I can already tell you that will never go away.

Do you think that BtVS still can be relateable for you when you are ”all grown up”, if there is such a thing?
I guess that´s not just a question for you actually. Is BtVS relatable whether or not you are a teenager or a young adult ? Do you think it is possible to relate to BtVS when you are an adult?

Do you think that BtVs and the High Schol simply can be a metaphor for society at large and therefor be relateable for people in all age categories?

You said that you know that your love for BtVS will never go away but are you afraid that there will come a time when you no longer feel the need of BtVs anymore?

[etca]

Apr 19, 2009 16:00:44 GMT -5 Emmie said:

1. Name?

15. How do you feel about other Buffy the Vampire-viewers?

[/b]
They're awesome! I feel an instant connection to people who are fans. Solidarity that we appreciate the same rich blend of genres from BUFFY. Every person who've I've met in real life who's a fan of BUFFY has been pretty cool to hang out with.
[/quote]

This innstant connection that you feel with other Buffy-fans. Is the word sameness a fitting term for that feeling, that is to say that you share something...you have a connection and whether or not you know anything else about this person, does´nt matter because you share this particulariry ...love I guess is the right word?!

[etca]

Apr 19, 2009 21:32:47 GMT -5 Just Willow said:

1. Name? Kelsey


8. How do you relate to the tv- series Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Well, i'm at a relateable age to the characters for the first few years. I get a lot of the circumstances they find themselves in. I can so understand what it's like to be an outcast.

10. What does the tv-series Buffy the Vampire Slayer mean to you? the world. Sometimes, when you're a teenager, your life sucks. a lot. Buffy was my sanctuary. i could sit and lose myself in a world almost as real to me as my own life. It's an escape from everyday teenage angst.

11. What is it that makes the tv- series Buffy the Vampire Slayer different from other TV series? The messages it sends, and the way it can make you laugh, cry, laugh till you cry, scream, get all warm and fuzzy inside and fall over because you're so far onto the edge of your seat.

When you say that BtVS became your sanctuary. What did that sancturay bring you, if you could be more specified? Is it right of me to assume that BtVs made you able to put words on thoughts and feelings for what you are going trough in your teens? Is it also right of me to assume that if you got your thoughts and feelings confirmded, made you feel that ” You are ok, just the way you are!? Is that the messages you are talking about?

[etca]

Apr 20, 2009 17:46:59 GMT -5 sla said:

11. What is it that makes the tv- series Buffy the Vampire Slayer different from other TV series?
A good plot with fantastic elements but with mature escence that makes you think about important things. It's not just vampires getting dusted by a girl, the show is about how to survive in the world, being responsable, friendship, love and all faces of a human being.

What kind of important things does BtVS make you think about? You said that it makes you think about life, love and friendship...surviving in the world. Could you maybe tell me what it makes you think about?
When you analyze BtVS in depth how do you do that? Could you give me some examples, do you, except from talking with other fans, maybe analyze it by comparing it with other litterature or maybe you use some psychological or sociological theories?

[etca]

This follow-up questions are not just for hitnrun017, Emmie Just Willow and Sla. If anyone else have something to share. Share!

The follow-ups are all about relating, meaning, analyzing and something that most of you, if not all, have been saying about BtVs is that about the layers, symbols and metaphors and also the struggle in life and the importance of love and famliy and so on.
Therefore I have picked out some sentences that I want to give you to think about and then give me your thoughts and feelings about them. Think of them in a Buffy-context and then place them in relation to you. Some of the sentences are quotes and some of them are expressions. I realize that the sentences somewhat make some you you repeat yourl self in, your answers. But I guess some things are worth repeating?!

I have given some examples on some of them, just to give you an idea of what i mean

And once again I would like to say that there are no right or wrong answers and neither are your answers suppose to be ojective. What I would like to know are your subjective and personal thoughts and feelings


Think outside the (bloody) box!

Action has consequenses

Mixing with the natural order!

We are doomed!
What are your thoughtsand feelings about free will and faith?

Actually, it explains a lot!
Think epiphanys, new knowledege about yourself , people around you or about mankind, even.

No Place like Home
Think about home in terms of belonging, such as to a certain place as well as to a certain person or a group of people.

Family
Is family always the ones that are blood related?

Power
With great power comes great responibility? Do you have the right to express your power, physical or emototional, to or over a another person just because you can?

The mission is what matters!

The weight of the world on your shoulders!

Make the fight your own!


The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it.

[Just Willow]

Think outside the (bloody) box!
Well, i think being outside the box is awesome. If you're constantly inside the box, everything gets boring, adn that's not a place i like to be.

Action has consequenses
I agree with this. every action you make, from jumping off a tower to your death to save the world or choosing whether or not to buy another candy bar at 711. Consequences have a huge range too. You could have just saved the world, or you could be enjoying twice the chocolate-y goodness you had been expecting.

Mixing with the natural order!
Our beloved characters talk about this a lot, and i am going to have to side with Tara on it. You shouldn't mess with the natural order of things, and season 6 (particularly Willow's arc) teaches viewers a lot about that.

We are doomed!
What are your thoughtsand feelings about free will and faith?
Well, i'm a Christian, and i believe that the Lord has a plan for everyone on Earth, but that doesn't mean we have no free will. It's our choice how we get to where we're going, but the place we get to was planned for us.

Actually, it explains a lot!
Think epiphanys, new knowledege about yourself , people around you or about mankind, even.
I'm one of those 'knowledge is power' people. kind of. I think to truly conquer something, you have to have a good knowledge of it.

No Place like Home
Think about home in terms of belonging, such as to a certain place as well as to a certain person or a group of people.
Home isn't just the place where you live. It's the place where you feel safe, where you feel loved. It might not even be an actual structure. it could just be that in the presence of a certian someone you feel at home.

Family
Is family always the ones that are blood related?
No. Family is whoever you feel at home with. They can be your blood relatives, or (like in Tara's case) it could just be the people you feel safe with, feel accepted with.

Power
With great power comes great responibility? Do you have the right to express your power, physical or emototional, to or over a another person just because you can?
NO. power is a great thing, but i think that people who have it should be at least a little bit humble about it, which is what Buffy does....sometimes.

The mission is what matters!
Not always. if all you have in your life is the mission, then yes, it's what matters. But there are other things that matter more. Friendship, and other people, and family (blood relations or otherwise) are much more important than your mission. In the Slayer's case, however, things may be different.

The weight of the world on your shoulders!
I'm pretty sure i would have snapped a lot sooner than Buffy did at the end of season 5. Buffy has extraordinary strength to truly carry the weight of the world. Most of us don't have that responsibility, but it can feel like it. BTVS teaches us to deal with our responsibilities, whether they be small or if the fate of the world truly depends on us.

Make the fight your own!
Whenever in a fight-physical, emotional, or any other kind-if you let your opponent get the upper hand, you're not going to come out triumphant, most of the time. You have to make the fight yours, become the master, and then you may come out on top.

The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it.
I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. To be perfectly honest, the world can sometimes be a not very nice place to live in. There are bullies, murders, horrible accidents and much more. At times you feel like you just don't want to be here anymore. Watching Buffy was one of my ways to escape the world when it's not a very nice place to be, which is why i love it so much.

Thanks for all the questions! it's been such fun!

[Skytteflickan88]

Think outside the (bloody) box!
We should all do this. Anya was right, when something seems hopeless and it looks like there's no way to win, you have to try to find another way anyhow.

Action has consequenses
So very true. As seen in numerous occasions on Buffy. In Buffy, magic is often used as a way to show that if you do something, with good/bad/selfish/selfless intentions, whatever it is and why, it will have consequences, good or bad. Buffy is a very moral show that way.

Mixing with the natural order!
Sometimes dead people should stay dead(as seen in the episode (Some Assebly Required, when the zombieguy went murderpus and in Bargaining when Buffy lost Heaven). Sometimes you shouldn't use magic, you should do things non-magically. Not only can it give consequences, like with that spirit that followed Buffy from the grave, but it could lead to moral issues, like Willow mind-violating Tara.

We are doomed!
What are your thoughtsand feelings about free will and faith?
There's in no entirely free will. Society, our nature, our past and now will effect us, make our choses more limited. But I doubt there is such as thing as fate. Someone's life could turn out a certain way, because they're were raised to live that life. But someone's life could also change drastically, in a way noone could have foretold. Well, maybe a higher being from Buffy could have foretold it.

Actually, it explains a lot!
Think epiphanys, new knowledege about yourself , people around you or about mankind, even.
There's is too much to say. One thing I can say though is; Everyone can turn out to be a monster. Torture, pressure whichever being and they will crack and for example, kill their parents. Everyone can be broken down.
Another thing, in Earshot, Buffy tells Jonathan that many people don't care about other people's problems, because they have enough of their own problems.

No Place like Home
Think about home in terms of belonging, such as to a certain place as well as to a certain person or a group of people.
Home is where the heart is, no matter where you are in the world, or where your loved ones are. For example with Buffy in season 8. It doesn't matter if she could move back to her old house in Sunnydale or not, she won't be home unless her loved ones are near her.
I don't think Buffy belonged with anyone until she meet Willow & Xander and they accepted her and the slayer in her. We can't know(unless we read the comic The Origin or see the original movie) exactly what her life was like before she moved to Sunnydale, but I'm guessing her friends back then weren't as good friends as Xander & Willow. Maybe she didn't even tell her old friends. When she told her family that vampires existed, she got sent to the loony bin(seen in the episode Normal Again). It wasn't until she came to Sunnydale that she was accepted. From what we saw in the episode The Wish, the lack of friends might have been a part of making her a killing machine.

Family
Is family always the ones that are blood related?
Of course not. Friends can be more like family than your blood relations. For example the episode Family, where Tara chooses her loving friends instead of her blood relations, because as Buffy said, they were now more her family.

Power
With great power comes great responibility? Do you have the right to express your power, physical or emototional, to or over a another person just because you can?
It depends. If a person acts too selfishly, or stupidly, that he or she hurts other people or themselves(to a certain extent, one should be aloud to hurt oneself a bit) they need to be stopped. But the way Willow usually did it, making fights go away, taking away parts of Tara that she will never have back, just to make her relationship "better" isn't the way to go. You can't mess around with other people's life, just because you think they should live a certain way. It's okay that parents do it until we reach adulthood, then it stops. We also saw with Faith how wrong that went. She thought she was above ordinary humans, partly because she had power(there must have been other reasons as well). She didn't act responsibly.

The mission is what matters!
Bullshit. If innocents are hurt, to make the world a better place, the world doesn't become a better place. Sometimes sacrifices has to be made for the greater good, but only small ones, if there is no other choice. For example with Buffy in The Gift; Killing Dawn, if no other choice had presented itself, would have been the right thing to do. Killing Dawn to stops AIDS from spreading, would have been wrong.
Many complain about how cold Buffy got, specially in season 7, but I think tehy should think about that she needs to focus on the mission to survive. (Btw, the mission I'm thinking of is "Doing things for the greater good, save innocents, kill bad guys")

The weight of the world on your shoulders!
A common theme on Buffy. Not sure what more to say, Buffy needing to save the world happened a lot.

Make the fight your own!
Don't fight by other peoples rules. If the world is about to be attacked by the First's forces, it's okay to awaken all the potentials over the world. If a bunch of old men in tweeds is trying to kill on your 18th birthday(the episode helpless) and if they later won't help you save your boyfriend(graduation day, the watcher won't help Angel), you have the right to quit on them. And later on, to change the rules even more, like making all potential slayers. Not that Buffy is all about making new rules, with Faith we saw how that could go very badly.

The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it.
So very true. To go up in the morning, make yourself go to work, raed about world hungr in the newspaper and get raped as you walk home from work... It can be very hard, just to live. As seen in Buffy. In season 6, that was "the Big Bad". Life can make you addicted, it can make you do horrible things(Buffy hated herself for having sex wity Buffy), you fall in love with people who hate you(Spike with Buffy), you make sacrifices for your loved ones (Buffy takes care of Dawn, Spike getting a soul). Life can be a bitch.

[gumgnome]

Action has consequenses
I think that this is one of the key messages of the Buffyverse. It is vitally important that people are aware that they are responsible for the fallout of their actions. Without this, there would be no forethought before acting.

Mixing with the natural order!
I guess this depends on what you consider the natural order. Is it natural to build skyscrapers, utilise fire, wear clothes? I think that when people are accused of breaking the natural order of things in the Buffyverse, it is because they are taking unecessarily large steps to achieve the ends that they require (eg Dawn trying to raise her mother from the dead to remove the feeling of her loss, Xander casting a love spell to get back at Cordy, Willow using magic to get dressed). In all, it is important to respect the status quo, because it almost certainly represents equilibrium that you might disrupt. However, attaching moral judgement to something because it is natural (i.e. the logic statement "because it is, it should be") is fallacious and if we followed this idea blindly, there would be no progression, only recapitulation of what already existed.

We are doomed!
What are your thoughtsand feelings about free will and faith?
I find it difficult sometimes to accept the existence of free will. If one accepts (as i do) that everything has a cause, and every cause has a cause, it is difficult to see the universe as little more than a cascade of events akin to a near-infinte line of dominos that has been knocked over. Any thought of free will is just as likely to be an artifact of consciousness keeping us sane.

Actually, it explains a lot!
Think epiphanys, new knowledege about yourself , people around you or about mankind, even.
I think the moment i realised adults were just as in the dark about the world and moral decisions as their children was an important epiphany in my own life and one that pushed me towards greater independence. I think Buffy's continiung commentary about the differences in knowledge acquisition between the children (read Scoobies) and the adults (think specifically MOO and the Initiative) in Sunnydale is designed to bring to light the idea that people don't get smarter as such when the grow up, but can fall back on the authority of age to project their opinions in a more forceful way.

No Place like Home
Think about home in terms of belonging, such as to a certain place as well as to a certain person or a group of people.
Home is where you know that you will be accepted regardless of your previous actions. From this perspective, it is interesting to note that this is not the case for Buffy in Empty Places. Her home becomes just another house then, when her acceptance is revoked.

Family
Is family always the ones that are blood related?
I think the show makes it abundantly clear that the writers do not feel this is true at all. Family are, instead, people with shared experiences which bring them together.

Power
With great power comes great responibility? Do you have the right to express your power, physical or emototional, to or over a another person just because you can?
Certainly not! Respecting someone's right to exist in peace is a basic right that should extend to everyone. After all, it is in all of our power every day to seriously harm those around us, whether by pushing someone down a flight of stairs or driving a car through a busy pedestrian area.

The weight of the world on your shoulders!
This is something that I have never experienced, and never hope to. I am trying at this point in my life to hold responsibility for as little outside my own well-being as possible.


The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it.
I have always regarded this statement as a little meaningless. After all, who among us have ever experienced a single moment of doing anything other than living in the world? Then the statement really goes "The hardest thing that we do is absolutely everything we ever do". Care to vague that up for me a little?

[Skytteflickan88]

I've made some alterations to my previous post.