The Power of Love
Dec. 24th, 2016 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsnotmymindBoth Buffy season six and Supernatural season five end with season finale where a character saves the day by reminding another character that they love them. However, while even just reading the transcripts of Buffy S6 can make me cry, the S5 finale leaves me cold, and it part of why S5 is my least favorite SPN season (bearing in mind that I have only seen through S10).
There are certainly some parallels, and I wonder if the SPN writers were thinking of Buffy S6 when they wrote Swan Song. If so, they left out all the parts that made Grave actually good.
One parallel that particularly amuses me is the fact that on both shows, characters mock the idea that love might save the day. Willow says scornfully, mere minutes before she collapses in tears, "Is this the master plan? You're going to stop me by telling me you love me?" And I find the following exchange between Dean and Adam, a few episodes before Swan Song, hilarious:
Dean: We're working on "the power of love.”
Adam: How's the going?
Dean: Mmm. Not good.
It's Jensen Ackles' delivery. Priceless.
But nonetheless, Swan Song does not manage to make me feel anything. So why does Grave work while Swan Song fails?
Part of it is this simple fact: In S6, Willow is the villain. She is influenced by magic, but at the end of the day, she is Willow. Xander tells Willow he loves her, in order to change Willow's mind about her actions. By contrast, Sam is not the bad guy of Swan Song. He's possessed by Lucifer. The message seems to be that Dean's love helped Sam gain the strength to overcome the possession, but that flies in the first of seasons past and seasons to be in terms of how possession works. Sam and Dean in later seasons are incredible casual about torturing and killing victims of possession If love can overcome possession, what does it say about all the people who can’t? Do they…just not love enough? All those strangers that the Winchesters don’t give a damn about? Do they not care enough?
In the past, some possession victims were able to overcome possession: John Winchester, Bobby Singer, Julia Wright from I Believe the Children Are Our Future. However, it was never portrayed as simply a matter of love.
(Sidenote: I read a tiny fic where Sam, in fact didn’t take control from Lucifer. What actually happened was Lucifer, upon experiencing Sam’s memories of Sam and Dean, relinquished control. Cool, but sadly not canon.)
And many other possession victims are not able to regain control. Sam in Born Under a Bad Sign, for one. Meg Masters, whose relationship with her sister is explicitly compared to Sam and Dean in Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester can't do it. Neither can Lisa Braeden, even when the demon possessing her holds a knife to her young son's neck. Ruby, Alastair, Castiel, Zachariah, Uriel, Lilith…if their vessels had just loved enough they would have been free? This is not a one-shot episode being undermined by Sam being able to overcome Lucifer through love. It's not lesser part of the mythology. This is something essential.
Another reason Grave works is because of the history of Willow and Xander's relationship. Xander, who has loved Willow as a friend since they were young children, is uniquely positioned to remind Willow that she was lovable even before she gained confidence and cool powers (something Tara could not do, as Tara did not know geeky Willow). I don't think Xander had ever declared his love to Willow directly to her face before, so Willow was hearing something new, even if she already knew it in her heart.
By contrast, Dean telling Sam that it will be okay is far from new. It's cliché. Dean's been saying that over the course of the entire show. Sam isn't being reminded of the importance of a relationship he forgot about: Even at the height of their problems in S4, Sam value the relationship, and never forgot his debt to Dean. In The Monster at the End of the This Book, Sam tells Chuck, "Well, [Dean]'s looked out for me my whole life. I can't return the favor?" His relationship with Dean has been explicitly his driving factor all along. A few episodes before Swan Song, Point of New Return, in a much better way, demonstrated the power of the relationship and Sam's belief in it. "Sam, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you." is not a revelation on any level.
Now, if Dean had expresses unambiguous belief in Sam, that might be a little different. But as in Sacrifice, Dean does nothing of the sort.
It's especially ironic, as over the course of the past couple of seasons, ever since Dean's Hell deal if not earlier, the show has been calling into question the idea that Dean's constant reassurances of Sam are a good. This is in no way acknowledged by Swan Song. It feels, instead, like fan service - which is par of course in SPN, but still disappointing. Seasons 1-4 told a very complicated story that completely unique to these characters and their relationship, that led to their triggering the apocalypse. I would love to see a very complicated story completely unique to these characters that led to their love saving the world…but S5 wasn’t it. Instead, Swan Song felt like ending a rich banquet with a Jell-O salad.
There are certainly some parallels, and I wonder if the SPN writers were thinking of Buffy S6 when they wrote Swan Song. If so, they left out all the parts that made Grave actually good.
One parallel that particularly amuses me is the fact that on both shows, characters mock the idea that love might save the day. Willow says scornfully, mere minutes before she collapses in tears, "Is this the master plan? You're going to stop me by telling me you love me?" And I find the following exchange between Dean and Adam, a few episodes before Swan Song, hilarious:
Dean: We're working on "the power of love.”
Adam: How's the going?
Dean: Mmm. Not good.
It's Jensen Ackles' delivery. Priceless.
But nonetheless, Swan Song does not manage to make me feel anything. So why does Grave work while Swan Song fails?
Part of it is this simple fact: In S6, Willow is the villain. She is influenced by magic, but at the end of the day, she is Willow. Xander tells Willow he loves her, in order to change Willow's mind about her actions. By contrast, Sam is not the bad guy of Swan Song. He's possessed by Lucifer. The message seems to be that Dean's love helped Sam gain the strength to overcome the possession, but that flies in the first of seasons past and seasons to be in terms of how possession works. Sam and Dean in later seasons are incredible casual about torturing and killing victims of possession If love can overcome possession, what does it say about all the people who can’t? Do they…just not love enough? All those strangers that the Winchesters don’t give a damn about? Do they not care enough?
In the past, some possession victims were able to overcome possession: John Winchester, Bobby Singer, Julia Wright from I Believe the Children Are Our Future. However, it was never portrayed as simply a matter of love.
(Sidenote: I read a tiny fic where Sam, in fact didn’t take control from Lucifer. What actually happened was Lucifer, upon experiencing Sam’s memories of Sam and Dean, relinquished control. Cool, but sadly not canon.)
And many other possession victims are not able to regain control. Sam in Born Under a Bad Sign, for one. Meg Masters, whose relationship with her sister is explicitly compared to Sam and Dean in Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester can't do it. Neither can Lisa Braeden, even when the demon possessing her holds a knife to her young son's neck. Ruby, Alastair, Castiel, Zachariah, Uriel, Lilith…if their vessels had just loved enough they would have been free? This is not a one-shot episode being undermined by Sam being able to overcome Lucifer through love. It's not lesser part of the mythology. This is something essential.
Another reason Grave works is because of the history of Willow and Xander's relationship. Xander, who has loved Willow as a friend since they were young children, is uniquely positioned to remind Willow that she was lovable even before she gained confidence and cool powers (something Tara could not do, as Tara did not know geeky Willow). I don't think Xander had ever declared his love to Willow directly to her face before, so Willow was hearing something new, even if she already knew it in her heart.
By contrast, Dean telling Sam that it will be okay is far from new. It's cliché. Dean's been saying that over the course of the entire show. Sam isn't being reminded of the importance of a relationship he forgot about: Even at the height of their problems in S4, Sam value the relationship, and never forgot his debt to Dean. In The Monster at the End of the This Book, Sam tells Chuck, "Well, [Dean]'s looked out for me my whole life. I can't return the favor?" His relationship with Dean has been explicitly his driving factor all along. A few episodes before Swan Song, Point of New Return, in a much better way, demonstrated the power of the relationship and Sam's belief in it. "Sam, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you." is not a revelation on any level.
Now, if Dean had expresses unambiguous belief in Sam, that might be a little different. But as in Sacrifice, Dean does nothing of the sort.
It's especially ironic, as over the course of the past couple of seasons, ever since Dean's Hell deal if not earlier, the show has been calling into question the idea that Dean's constant reassurances of Sam are a good. This is in no way acknowledged by Swan Song. It feels, instead, like fan service - which is par of course in SPN, but still disappointing. Seasons 1-4 told a very complicated story that completely unique to these characters and their relationship, that led to their triggering the apocalypse. I would love to see a very complicated story completely unique to these characters that led to their love saving the world…but S5 wasn’t it. Instead, Swan Song felt like ending a rich banquet with a Jell-O salad.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-12-29 03:01 am (UTC)So, technically, Xander has told Willow to her face that he loved her on a few occasions. However, the history is interesting. One of the key moments when he has is really extremely telling. From I Robot - You Jane, in the teaser, when Willow is scanning books for Jenny and Giles:
Willow: I've just got a few more. I'll hang for a bit.
Ms. Calendar: Cool! Thanks.
Xander grabs his bag and pulls it onto his shoulder.
Willow: Xander, you wanna stay and help me?
Xander: (in disbelief) Are you kidding?
Willow: (taken aback) Yes, it was a joke I made up.
Xander: Willow, I love you, but bye! (leaves)
Willow: (calls after him) See you tomorrow!
Xander: (ignores her) Buffy, wait up!
And then Willow, left alone, scans Moloch into the computer. Later on, Moloch, who keeps Willow company after Xander and the others leave, has this exchange with Willow:
Moloch: But I love you!
Willow: Don't say that! That's a joke! You don't love anything!
So:
1. Xander loves Willow -- but not enough to be there with her. (And his intense feelings for Buffy are part of that.)
2. Willow believes that people sometimes lie when they say they love someone else -- or are incapable of it. In fact, "that's a joke" has extra resonance because Xander *literally said "I love you" as part of a joke* about how his love for her does not extend to willingness to do boring computer tasks. Willow knows Moloch does not really love her in a "real" way because she looks at his actions. So what does that mean for Xander?
In Inca Mummy Girl, there is something similar but there is more distance -- Xander declares he loves Willow, to Buffy, but further says that she's a friend, about whose lips he doesn't think.
In Becoming, he tells Willow he loves her while she's unconscious -- and she doesn't hear him. She wakes up to Oz.
There's a gap, I think, for a while. Then by the time we get to Hell's Bells, there's a lot of history:
Xander gives a small smile and hugs her. Over her shoulder, his face looks very conflicted.
WILLOW: Do you know how much I love you?
XANDER: Mmm ... 'bout half as much as I love you.
Willow smiles, pulls out of the hug.
WILLOW: (smiling) You ready for the long walk?
XANDER: Um ... yeah, just give me a sec, I wanna work on my vows.
WILLOW: Take your time. It's not like we can start the wedding without you.
She smiles at him and leaves. Xander watches her go, dropping his brave smile.
Xander's statement is actually still slightly ambiguous -- especially if you consider that while Willow is entirely sincere here, Willow-in-Grave would, I believe, not believe that *she* is capable of love, so that Xander loving her twice as much as she loves him would be still minuscule from that perspective. But the other thing is that in retrospect, it should be clear that Xander professed his love but still hid a huge part of what he was feeling at the moment. He didn't love her enough to entrust her with the huge fears he was going through, and deceives her to an extent about his emotional gut-punch and how he's basically about to run away. This isn't a criticism of Xander. Just because you love someone doesn't mean you are ready to expose your beating heart to them, or tell them that you're afraid you're about to ruin your/your would-be wife's life (whether he stays or goes, there's a risk of it). But I think it slightly undermines the power of love, too, and suggests Xander holding something back from his love for Willow while he makes the declarations, as in IRYJ.
...
no subject
Date: 2016-12-29 01:11 pm (UTC)I've been thinking of emotional vulnerability lately. People often express emotional vulnerability in certain ways and expect a certain response, and when they don't get it (because the other party has other ideas about what emotional vulnerability should look like), they're likely to conclude the relationship isn't as close as they thought. They feel rejected. Note in Hell's Bells Willow doesn't *tell* Xander how much she loves him - she asks what he thinks. That must be a little bit scary for Xander to answer, especially with his own set of issues. So he gives a safe and slightly ambiguous answer.
ETA: Which is part of what makes Xander so terribly brave in Grave. He's facing down a Willow who seems practically a stranger, and clearly and unambiguously stating his love for all versions of her.