(miss murchison made me do this). creature demons vs. biblical demons? : comments.
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(no subject)
Willow's experimentations with both magic and sexual orientation, Xander's experimentations with jobs - who should I be, Giles experimenting with mid-life crisis - what do I do now? Is this really where I should be? And then you have Riley - who had a plan, he was one of those people you meet who know who he was, what he wanted to be, and how he felt about things from the age of 6. 'I always wanted to join the military, to be an action hero..etc.' He likes authority - as is demonstrated by his devotion to Professor Walsh, to the extent that he even follows her advice regarding Buffy. (Note he does not follow the advice of his teammates/friends who tell him prior to his discussion with Walsh to pursue the girl. But when Prof Walsh says she likes Buffy, Riley perks up and starts pursuing in earnest.) Riley is the opposite of Angel in every sense of the word - except physical. He is what Buffy may have wished Angel was. The safe, normal boyfriend. He is also the opposite of Angel in religion. Angelus/Angel scoffs at religion and authority. Riley is the opposite - Riley respects authority, respects religion, respects structure.
Riley represents the status quo. Normality. At least in Buffy's pov. The normal, traditional course. When she breaks up with Riley and ends up having an affair with Spike - Spike is the opposite. As far from Riley as she could get. Disrespectful of authority, religion, normality.
Yet, as we learn in Beneath You, Spike does respect and believe in God and religion. He's just not into the rules and structure of it. And it is the rules and structure of religion that Buffy herself is grappling with. She keeps breaking the rules or going around them or questioning them.
For Riley - the rules and structure were what mattered. He's not unlike the people who go to church not so much because they believe in God, but because they happen to like to go to church and like the structure of the church they belong to. They like the rules. When that gets stripped away from him - which happens three times in the series, he goes nuts, loses himself. Each time he goes back to that structure, those rules, that organization - he is happy, strong, in charge.
I've known quite a few people in my life who join religions because they need a structure to their lives, they need a set of superimposed values and guidelines to follow. They crave that.
IT comforts them and makes them happy. And taken to an extreme - it can become a cultish - which is shown with Adam in S4 BTVS and Jasmine in S4 ATS.
(TBC...because I can't figure out how to cut more words to make it fit in the little posting box)
(no subject)
In AYW S6, Riley manages to find a balance. He rediscovers the structure that makes him feel safe, locates a woman who appreciates that structure for the same reasons he does, yet at the same time realizes that there are things that lie outside of it - outside of the rules (Spike, OZ, Buffy are all examples). Whedon forshadows this resolution in Restless - where he depicts Riley leaving Buffy in her dream. He doesn't leave because Buffy is part demon, as she fear's, but because her life is more chaotic than he can handle. He is somewhat cruel when he leaves - stating that she does not love him, when in reality it is that she does not love him enough to change her life for him, to leave her world for his as he believes he's left his world for hers. He feels he's the only one who made the sacrifice. And he is not entirely wrong, except what he doesn't acknowledge is that Buffy did make an effort in S4 to join his world - granted it was short lived, but she did try.
I would not go so far as to state that Riley's view, religion or way is wrong, nor do I think the writers have stated that. "As You Were" clearly demonstrates this - showing how you can live in that world and make it work for you. What is wrong is trying to force someone else into a role that does not work for them - making them become what you want them to become out of love for you - a theme that seems to encompass both shows and I think does hit upon religion. Too many religions seek to impose their views on others. I think Riley's journey may be an examination of how you find what is best for you without imposing it on someone else.
(no subject)
Very interesting!
(no subject)
The theme of order vs. chaos is consistent in all of Whedon's tales - from BTVS-Firefly. And he explores the negative and positive aspects of both. Wolf Ram & Hart symbolize order in Angel's universe, Jasmine is a demon of order, yet the Beast which brings her into fruitation - chaos.
In Buffy - we have the Mayor, obsessed with order as well as Adam, while on the chaos side - Angelus/Spike/Dru/and to an extent Glory. The First Evil and Caleb represent both. In Firefly - we see it represented in the "Alliance" vs. "The Reavers", with the crew of Firefly representing the middle ground.
It's a problem in many religions, I think - finding that balance. Knowing when to control and when to allow people to come to their conclusions. The difference between dictating and guiding, because God does not dictate so much as guide us, if God dictated there would not be free will. People think that if you make everything orderly, structured, evil won't exist. (Recently I had a conversation with someone who actually said Hitler had the right idea, he was a good leader, because he imposed order. Dictated how people should live their lives, that we should not have free will, and indeed have too many rights. So lives were lost, at least everyone had a job, food, shelter - much like Connor's justification of Jasmine - so people are eaten, at least everyone's happy. But there's no art, no creativity, and free will is gone. Many religions state the same thing - they dictate.)
Have you read Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials"? It is in some respects a counter-argument to the Christian beliefs of CS Lewis as depicted in the Narnia novels or the view of an "orderly" world. In it Pullman appears to state that without free will, we have nothing. That being controlled is worse than death. Whedon states the same thing. Yet, if we have no rules, no order, no structure - we will destroy ourselves. There has to be a middle ground.
The fight between the two extremes isn't just in religion, we see it in economic systems and government infrastructures. Anarchy on one side - Tolitarianism on the other. The systems that survive the longest are the ones that discover a middle ground.