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Week 4 - Change
"It's What You Do Afterwards That Counts"

Background - An Introduction to Kendra

Photo: Kendra the Vampire Slayer

Buffy dies more than once during the series, and keep in mind that it is the death of a Slayer that causes a new Slayer to be called. Kendra is the Slayer called after Buffy's first death.

This is Kendra's second appearance in Sunnydale. Unlike Buffy, she was raised by a Watcher, and knows little about the world other than her calling as Slayer. She is a complete contrast to Buffy. Where Buffy is rebellious, Kendra is obedient; where Buffy is spontaneous, Kendra stays within the realm of what she has learned; where Buffy is emotional, Kendra is reserved. This is the core of Kendra's vulnerability.

Opening

You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are. If there's any kind of fiction better than that, I don't know what it is.

-Joss Whedon

I don't want to create responsible shows with lawyers in them. I want to invade people's dreams.

-Joss Whedon

Episode 2.21 - Becoming, part 1

What to watch for:

  • Buffy's readiness to take on Angel
  • Drusilla's obsessions
  • Angel's history

Transcript available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season2/transcripts/33_tran.shtml

Episode 2.22 - Becoming, part 2

What to watch for:

  • Spike's change of heart
  • Joyce's new awareness about her daughter
  • Giles's weak point
  • Willow's "resolve face" and her message to Buffy
  • The difference between what Buffy was prepared to give to fight Angel, and what she ultimately did sacrifice

Transcript available at http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season2/transcripts/34_tran.shtml

Questions

At the end of Becoming, Buffy has a strong reaction to the events of the story. Did it have to end this way?

Why do we fear change?

If you could stop change in yourself, would you do that?

If you could stop change in people close to you, would you do that? Have you wanted to do that?

When you've gone through a major change in your life, how do you expect others to respond to that? Does it make a difference in your expectations whether they've been part of that change, or separate from it? Do they react the way you expect?

How does change define us as human beings?

In terms of how we live our lives, what is the difference between change in the world, and change in our perceptions?

What is the first coping strategy that you reach for in the face of change? Why? Has that strategy changed during your life?

How can we learn to see change as an opportunity?

Closing

What is the hallmark of Great Literature that was lacking on television up until the 1990s? Character maturation due to the power of intimate relationships. That's what we see in Buffy.... Close friendships and love change the characters before our eyes, so that the next time they face a challenge, they tackle it with a different coping strategy-step by step evolving a more mature coping strategy until they face major challenges.

How many characters on other TV shows do we learn to know, understand, and love before they commit deliberate murder?

Great Literature is about the process of Becoming, of growth and learning through hard lessons. It explains the human condition, shows us how our own unique experiences are related to common human ones familiar to everyone. Great Literature changes its field, opens new avenues, explores new venues and is copied or emulated. Buffy appears to have all of these key items.

-Jacqueline Lichtenburg

Additional Reading

Brock, Rita Nakashima, and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.

DeKelb-Rittenhouse, Diane, Sex and the Single Vampire: The Evolution of the Vampire Lothario and its Representation on Buffy. Wilcox, Rhonda V., and David Lavery, Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Kaverny, Roz, She Saved The World. A Lot. An Introduction to the Themes and Structures of Buffy and Angel. Kaveny, Roz, Reading the Vampire Slayer, second edition. London: Taurisparke Paperbacks, 2004.

Krimmer, Elisabeth, and Shilpa Raval, "Digging the Undead": Death and Desire in Buffy. Wilcox, Rhonda V., and David Lavery, Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Kopp, Sheldon B., If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! Toronto: Bantam Books, 1972.

Lichtenburg, Jacqueline, Power of Becoming. Yeffeth, Glenn, Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy writers Discuss their Favorite Television Show. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books, 2003.

Miller, Jessica Prata, "The I in Team": Buffy and Feminist Ethics. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.

Riess, Jana, What Would Buffy Do? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Stroud, Scott R., A Kantian Analysis of Moral Judgment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.