chani | Seasons 6 and 7 through stages models

I posted this on lateseasonlove.

The world might be a stage, but life has stages too, and BTVS has always been about a journey, about growing-up, female empowerment and resilience. The two last seasons showed us the last stages of Buffy's journey.

I remember that when season 7 opened, we got some spoilers telling that the BB was to come, and that what we called then the shapeshifter wasn't our Big Bad. I think it was pretty accurate (and yes it suits my theory about the First Evil! ;- )). Caleb was to come. And he was really the anti-Buffy, the ultimate Big Bad.

Nathan Fillion did a great job to create what was the archetype of a sociopath. I think that the car scene at the beginning of "Dirty Girls" was the most violent thing I've seen on BTVS. We got a BB who didn't have the humour of The Mayor or the glamourous and dark sexiness of an Angelus. Caleb was simply scary...and human. He was the absolute opposite of Buffy. As she reached adulthood and a high level of moral development, Caleb sank into evil, she made girls powerful while he wanted to destroy the female power.

Here's a link to a post I mad last year about Kohlberg's stages of moral development applied to BTVS. According to me Caleb embodies stage 0 while Buffy might have become a stage 7 in "Chosen". If you read the discussion I had with frances_lievens you'll see she said that Caleb wanted to please "his God". I don't think so, and when the FE told him Do you think I'm God , he replied I certainly do not. I am beyond concepts like that. Caleb is pure ego. He doesn't act for or because of..., he doesn't try to please others, he doesn't fear punishment, he doens't follow rules, he doens't respect any system(he even mocks the metaphors of the Last Supper) he acts out of his own likes and dislikes, and he hates women (using religious text, he also mentions Paul known for his misogynous statements). Just re-read the transcript of "Dirty Girls" and count how many times he uses "I"!

At the end of BTVS Buffy was more than simply a grown-up by the end, she changed the world. She was mostly at the level III during the show, with bits of lower stages sometimes because she wasn't matured enough. In "The Kiler IN Me" or in LMPTM she was definitely a stage 6. But in "Chosen" she reached a sort of transcendental morality, creating a new system within new Slayers would have to carry on their own journeys.

Speaking of stages, I've just realized something thanks to calove 's new fic based on the 'Five Stages' model to deal with grief . We all know that season 6 was the stage of depression after Buffy's return...and it had been foreshadowing by Anya in "Intervention" !

She already pointed out Buffy's reactions then: denial, anger...which are the first two stages of the processus. Stage 3 is bargaining (the title of ep 1-2 in season 6 !) and stage 4 is depression! There was a psy thread going on through those late seasons, so of course we got a shrink session in "Conversation With Dead People". Buffy questioned her actions and feelings then, and in "Touched" we got another session of truth between the Slayer and her vampire. And since I can't help a good pun, I'll quote Buffy: Fine. The stage is yours. Cheer me up.

So I think that season 7 is stage 5, that is acceptance, the cloture of a processus that was planned in season 5. Buffy accepted who she was in season 7, she accepted what the First Slayer told her in "Intervention", she FORGAVE everyone(Willow, Spike, Anya, Giles, Faith, Andrew...Dawn), she GAVE (sharing her power with all the Potentials thanks to the activating spell), she LOVED (her last sentence). The other characters' storyline echoed her acceptance.

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I don't agree with you; I think that Season 7 was a mess, full of directionless episodes, with the overall theme not being Acceptance but "OMG they're cancelling the show and SMG is gonna leave whatever we do! Can we come up with a spin-off idea that will save our jobs?" And I believe that Caleb was no pre-planned big bad, but an out-of-place insertion existing only to give Nathan Fillion a job following the cancellation of "Firefly".

You have far more trust in Joss and in the ME team than do I. I don't think that they knew what they were doing, and if they achieved something that fit into the "5 Stages of Receiving Catastrophic News" framework (Dr Kubler-Ross, who created the concept, never mentioned Grief in her original work) then it was only by pure accident in my opinion.

Also, I see the later parts of Season 7 as anti-feminist in the extreme. To me it seems to say that women can only achieve any worth by emulating men, and that it is the single quality - physical strength - in which men are normally superior to women that is the quality by which they will be judged. And at the end a man will have to step in and save the girls. An idea that I loathe and which to me negates the entire concept of Buffy.

Your argument is persuasive, however. Perhaps not enough to convince me, but it would me nice to think that ME did know what they were doing.

Excellent post.

Oh I agree that Caleb wasn't planned, and I think that the second half of the season was botched up and giving Nathan a job was certainly a reason, but concerning BB there's a logic going on from season 1 to season 7...and that logic led us towards BB that were more and more human (The Master, a vampire without a human face, living in the underworld=>Angelus, a formerly soulled vampire = > The Mayor, formerly human, living in the human world => Adam, a BB created by men, with bits of human technology and demon parts, wanted to study humanity = > Glory, a goddess stuck in the human world, who had to share a body with Ben, a human => Willow, a human witch who went dark => Caleb)?

As for the finale. I really don't read it as you did. I don't see women emulating men at all, the Slayer's physical powers are a metaphor and I doubt that Joss meant that physical strength would be the quality by which women would be judged (and judged by whom?). I liked the idea that slayerhood was no longer showed as a "burden" but as something positive. And I don't see a man stepping in and saving the girls for instance.

I know that many connections I find may exist only in my own head, but it's fun to seek them, and who knows what went in the writers' head anyway...

Seasons 6 and 7 through stages models

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