Old stuff

[chani]

In Autumn 2004 I read a friend's thesis before the viva voce in Lyon, helping her to correct a few things. Her thesis was about exorcism in Middle Ages, a topic I didn't master but that was close enough to my special field, medieval inquisition.

I do miss the academic work.

Just found an essay I wrote then, about alienation and possession in the Buffyverse.

Possession and Alienation in the Jossverse

 

 

 

Possession and alienation are a recurring theme in both BTVS and Ats. I'm currently reading my friend's thesis about Exorcism in Middle Ages (from the Century Xth to the XIVth) and she shows how the Devil was made use of to serve the Church via the Words of exorcism.

I wonder what Joss' goal was everytime he used the idea of  possession, and he used it a lot:

 

 "The Pack" when students are possessed by hyenas' spirit, in "Halloween" with the Scoobies being possessed by their costumes, Angel whi seemed possessed by his own demon after losing his soul (or is it Angelus possessed by the soul-curse?), "Amends" and the possessing FE, the Super-Slayer created in "Primeval" was a kind of possession/alienation, the possession of the First Slayer through the dreams in "Restless", pregnant Cordy possessed by evil spawn in Ats, the possessed evil boy (who was even bad without the demon), Ben possessed by Glory, Cordelia again possessed by visions and accepting a true aliantion when she bacame half-demon, everyone possessed by singing urges (Spike sings he's "like a man possesed") and dancing impulses in OMWF (especially Buffy who could have danced herself to death!), Buffy's alienation in "Normal Again", Dark Willow possessed by the black magic she drew from the book, Pod! Cordy in Ats season 4, Spike possessed by the First in season 7 (but is he the only one?), the shamans creating the First Slayer by getting her kinda possessed, the mad Slayer possessed by the former Slayers in "Damage", Illyria possessing Fred's body then the same Illyria being possessed and therefore a bit alienated by Fred's remains that is her memories and to finish Hamilton telling Angel that they were "legions" (typical vocabulary of possesion from the Gospels) inside him in "Not Fade Away"!

Even the alteration of memories whether it was additional fake memories (the Dawn case)or the spell about Connor could be seen as a sort of possession. 

I may have forgotten some examples...but I guess I made my point.

Of course Joss' purpose wasn't theological. I think he used that theme to tell something about the notion of identity...hence the unfamous running joke about Ben and Glory (not going there!). 

Does the possession a way to reveal what you really are ("Restless", "Normal Again" maybe...) or does it simply turn you into a pod!character who isn't you at all (Cordelia in Ats season 4)? Is possession always an alienation that makes you become someone else?

For instance Angel and Angelus were shown as 2 characters, and for Buffy or the Fang Team when Angel was possessed by his demon as Angelus, he was considered as someone else. But in season 5 that separation became less and less relevant hence NFA and Angel embracing his dark side to fight the good fight.

Spike's condition in season 7 and mainly in "Sleeper" is also interesting. Spike is first shown insane which is a case of alienation. Then in "Sleeper" we understand that he's possessed by the First Evil that makes him kill again. That possession is done in a very classical/biblical way since we see Spike's double on screen whispering little songs to his own ears. In the Bible, about the demons of Gesara, Mattew uses the expression " duo habentes daemonia". So the Evangelist tells that to be possessed means to be "two", oneself and someone else (the Devil that sneaked its way inside) at once(Spike used the expression "the 3 of us" in "Lessons" !).

 

But...Spike's possession went through a trigger, "Anne's song", and in LMPTM we discovers that it's a pure case of repression. He killed his mother and didn't want to remember it. He also metaphorically killed his William-self by killing his mother, becoming someone else...Spike the Vampire. But the fact that the trigger worked was the evidence that Spike was still William. So actually the possession makes the truth come out. The scene with Woods is nothing but an exorcism (and Wood is a very hot exorcist). It reveals the truth about Spike.

 

Also the episode about the possessed boy in Ats is meaningful. It's the demon that possessed the boy who tells the truth about that wicked boy eventually! I really like this episode because it's very clever. I like the way the cliché is twisted, because it's the demon who was stuck in the boy's body at the end of the day, the demon who wanted to escape the possession, the demon who craved the exorcism!

 

The possessed boy wasn't evil because of the possession, it's quite the other way round actually.

 

Everytime ME used the possession as a plot device, it revealed the true nature or at least true features about a character.

 

In "Halloween", they seemed to become someone else entirely, far away from their true selves, but they didn't pick those costumes by  chance. They actually all turned into something they feared they were, or believed they were or they wished they would have been...So the possession reveals a lot about them once more.

 

Even the vampires who represent, in essence, a case of possession, happened to be more complicated than what Giles and Angel said in BTVS season 1 when they told Buffy that the vampire was only wearing the human body and carrying his memories but was no longer that person.

 

The only exception I can think about might be Cordelia in Ats season 4 (not the best arc they have written btw). But is it sure? So I ask the question to my flist:

 

Do you really think that Pod!Cordelia, Master of the Beast and Mother of Jasmine, wasn't Cordelia at all? If not, what did that tell about her?